WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 


N 


WHEN  THE 
KU  KLUX  RODE 


BT 

EYRE   DAMER 


NEW  YORK 

THE  NEALE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
1912 


Copyright,  1912,  by 
The  Neale  Publishing  Company 


INTRODUCTION 

This  work  is  undertaken  with  the  wish  to  gratify 
a  popular  desire  for  addition  to  the  scant  literature 
relating  to  the  Reconstruction  Era  and  that  most 
remarkable  organization  of  modern  times — begotten 
of  conditions  unparalleled  in  history,  conditions 
which  can  never  recur,  and  vanishing  with  the 
emergency  which  created  it — the  militant  Ku  Klux 
K!an.  Only  one  writer  has  ventured  far  into  this 
field  of  research,  which  until  then  seemed  forbidden, 
and  in  his  contribution  to  history,  fact  and  fiction  are 
so  interwoven  as  to  be  almost  indistinguishable. 
But  the  widespread  and  intense  interest  manifested 
in  his  revelations  of  the  origin  and  purposes  of  the 
Klan  indicates  that  the  present  generation  eagerly 
imbibes  knowledge  of  the  sacrifices  and  achieve 
ments  of  the  men  who  in  the  awful  crisis  of  recon 
struction,  and  against  almost  insuperable  obstacles, 
rescued  the  commonwealth  from  ihe  control  of  cor 
rupt  adventurers  and  ignorant  freedmen,  and  estab 
lished  orderly  government,  without  which  the  sub 
sequent  marvelous  development  of  natural  resources 


253746 


6  INTRODUCTION 

and  advancement  in  education  which  have  placed 
the  state  in  the  forefront  of  progress  would  have 
been  impossible.  This  evident  interest  encourages 
the  hope  that  a  simple  narrative  of  facts  connected 
with  the  struggle  in  that  part  of  the  Black  Belt  of 
Alabama  which  formed  the  Fourth  Congressional 
District,  by  one  who  was  in  the  midst  of  it  and  a 
close  observer,  will  receive  a  welcome. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER    ONE — PROVISIONAL    GOVERNMENT 9 

CHAPTER  Two — NATIVE    GOVERNMENT 14 

CHAPTER  THREE — MILITARY  GOVERNMENT 19 

CHAPTER  FOUR — A  GRAVE  PROBLEM 26 

CHAPTER  FIVE — THE  FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU 34 

CHAPTER  Six— MILITARY  REGULATIONS 38 

CHAPTER  SEVEN — THE  UNION  LEAGUE 47 

CHAPTER  EIGHT— A   REPUBLICAN   BLUNDER 51 

CHAPTER  NINE — CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT        54 

CHAPTER  TEN — RUINOUS  MISGOVERNMENT 74 

CHAPTER  ELEVEN — THE  WHITES  AROUSED 84 

CHAPTER  TWELVE — THE  Ku  KLUX  KLAN 90 

CHAPTER  THIRTEEN— A  MISCARRIAGE 99 

CHAPTER   FOURTEEN — A   CONVENTION    SUPPLEMENTS   Ku 

KLUX 104 

CHAPTER   FIFTEEN — FOILED  THE   Ku   KLUX 107 

CHAPTER  SIXTEEN— IN  TUSCALOOSA 114 

CHAPTER  SEVENTEEN — A  SERIES  OF  TRAGEDIES     .    .    .    .  116 

CHAPTER  EIGHTEEN — DISAPPEARANCE  OF  PRICE    ....  124 

CHAPTER  NINETEEN — RIOTS  IN  MARENGO 127 

CHAPTER  TWENTY — KILLINGS  AND  RIOTING  IN  GREENE    .  132 
CHAPTER    TWENTY^ONE— RESTORATION    OF    WHITE    SU 
PREMACY    ,                                                    ,    ,    ,    ,    ,  148 


WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 


CHAPTER  ONE 

PROVISIONAL  GOVERNMENT 

In  a  proclamation  which  issued  on  May  10,  1865, 
the  president  of  the  United  States  declared  the  Civil 
War  at  an  end.  April  9,  the  date  of  General  Lee's 
surrender,  was  recognized  as  the  date  of  the  actual 
termination  of  the  war.  On  May  29,  1865,  the 
president,  by  proclamation,  directed  the  restoration 
of  seized  private  property,  except  "as  to  slaves"; 
and  on  June  24,  1865,  restored  commercial  inter 
course  between  all  the  states. 

Relying  on  the  promises  made  by  federal  generals 
while  Southern  armies  were  in  the  field ;  on  the  terms 
arranged  between  Generals  Grant  and  Lee  and  Sher 
man  and  Johnston  when  the  Southern  armies  capitu 
lated,  and  on  the  proclamation  of  the  president, 

9 


io  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

the  people  of  Alabama  believed  that  as  soon  as  they 
could  in  the  proper  way  repeal  the  ordinance  of 
secession  and  comply  with  other  immediate  require 
ments,  Alabama  and  the  people  thereof  would  be 
restored  to  their  former  coequal  condition  in  the 
Union. 

The  real  issue  of  the  war  had  been  the  right  of  the 
southern  people  to  renounce  allegiance  to  and  citi 
zenship  in  the  Union;  in  its  triumph  at  arms  the 
United  States  sustained  its  contention  that  there 
could  be  no  such  renunciation ;  and  consequently  the 
southern  people  laid  down  their  arms  as  citizens  of 
the  United  States  defeated  in  the  attempt  at  renun 
ciation.  The  authorities  at  Washington  could  not 
fairly  avoid  this  conclusion,  and  certainly  President 
Johnson  reached  it  instantly. 

That  there  would  be  permitted  prompt  resumption 
of  equal  rights,  except  in  a  few  cases,  was  more 
than  hoped  for, — it  was  confidently  expected;  and 
for  some  time  there  was  no  indication  that  there 
would  be  disappointment. 

President  Johnson's  attitude  toward  the  southern 
states  encouraged  the  hope  of  speedy  restoration  of 
order  and  a  large  measure  of  prosperity.  The  presi 
dent  was  as  generous  as  Lincoln  would  have  been, 
had  he  survived  the  conflict.  In  order  that  readers 
may  clearly  understand  the  situation  as  it  then  ex- 


PROVISIONAL  GOVERNMENT  n 

isted,  a  brief  explanation  of  President  Johnson's 
attitude  is  necessary  here  : 

Immediately  following  the  surrender  of  the  Con 
federate  armies  and  the  declaration  of  peace,  Presi 
dent  Johnson  formally  stated  his  view  of  the  situa 
tion  to  be  that  the  war  had  neither  destroyed  nor 
impaired  the  Union ;  that  the  southern  states  had  no 
right  to  withdraw  from  the  compact,  and  having 
failed  by  resort  to  arms  to  accomplish  separation, 
they  emerged  from  the  strife  as  they  entered  it, 
states  and  members  of  the  Union,  still  possessing 
their  constitutions,  laws  and  territorial  boundaries 
as  they  had  been  prior  to  the  adoption  of  the  ordi 
nance  of  secession;  that  the  constitutions  and  laws 
of  those  states,  however,  must  be  suspended  pend 
ing  unavoidable  acceptance  by  the  people  of  the  fact 
that  slavery  having  been  a  stake  in  the  struggle,  the 
accomplished  abolition  of  that  institution  was  irre 
versible;  also,  that  debts  contracted  by  the  states 
during  the  war  should  be  repudiated;  that  with 
acquiescence  in  these  requirements  the  states  should 
be  restored  to  their  former  relations  with  the  Union. 
He  therefore  announced  as  his  policy  that  while  the 
southern  states  were  adjusting  themselves  to  the 
change,  provisional  state  governments  should  be 
established  as  necessary  and  constitutional  agencies ; 
that  the  citizens  who  were  included  in  the  proclama- 


12  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

tion  of  amnesty,  together  with  those  who,  having 
been  leaders  in  the  secession  movement,  were  par 
doned,  should  participate  in  the  work  of  restoration; 
that  citizens  of  the  states  were  best  entitled  to  fill  the 
public  offices,  and  should  be  appointed  to  them ;  that 
the  emancipated  slaves  were  not  qualified  to  take 
part  in  such  work,  nor  had  the  president  of  the 
United  States  power  to  confer  upon  them  the  right 
of  suffrage,  because  the  determination  of  their  poli 
tical  status  was  a  function  of  the  states. 

In  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  President  Johnson's  views  and  purposes 
were  wise  and  statesmanlike,  and  had  they  prevailed, 
the  horrors  caused  by  congressional  enactments 
would  not  have  afflicted  the  people,  nor  would  the 
relations  between  the  races  have  become  unfriendly, 
as  they  did,  and  continue  to  beJ  But,  unfortunately, 
the  embittered  and  aspiring  leaders  in  Congress  were 
planning  at  cross-purposes  with  the  president.  His 
moderate  and  conservative  course,  and  scrupulous 
respect  for  his  oath  to  support  the  Constitution, 
seemed  along  in  1866  to  have  won  popular  favor; 
but  his  indiscreet  expressions  in  public  addresses  in 
western  cities  created  hostility  so  strong  that  in  the 
congressional  elections  his  enemies  triumphed  over 
him.  By  two-thirds  votes  in  Congress  they  nulli 
fied  his  vetoes  of  oppressive  legislation;  and  in  1868 


PROVISIONAL  GOVERNMENT  13 

the  Senate  reinstated  Secretary  of  War  Stanton, 
whom  he  had  during  the  previous  year  suspended 
from  office.  Out  of  this  transaction  grew  the  unsuc 
cessful  attempt  to  impeach  him.  While  this  attempt 
failed,  the  president's  influence  with  his  party  was 
destroyed  and  he  was  powerless  to  enforce  his  bene 
ficent  policies. 


CHAPTER  TWO 

NATIVE  GOVERNMENT 

But  meanwhile,  having  announced  his  policy  in  re 
organizing  the  southern  states,  President  Johnson  in 
the  summer  of  1865  appointed  Lewis  E.  Parsons,  of 
Talladega,  provisional  governor  of  the  state  of  Ala 
bama,  and  that  gentleman  entered  upon  the  dis 
charge  of  his  duties.  There  was  popular  approval  of 
the  appointment.  Parsons  was  a  native  of  New 
York,  but  long  a  resident  and  practicing  lawyer  in 
Talladega,  an  uncompromising  Whig  and  Union 
man,  possessing  fine  abilities  and  much  dignity. 

On  July  20  Governor  Parsons  published  a  procla 
mation  directing  that  an  election  be  held  in  each 
county  on  August  3  for  delegates  to  a  state  conven 
tion  to  assemble  on  September  12,  1865.  Accord 
ingly,  intelligent  and  patriotic  delegates  were  chosen 
in  all  the  counties,  and  the  convention  met  at  the  capi- 
tol  in  Montgomery,  with  Benjamin  Fitzpatrick  pre 
siding.  That  convention,  dealing  with  the  consti 
tution,  abolished  the  ordinance  in  relation  to  the 

14 


NATIVE  GOVERNMENT  15 

institution  of  slavery,  declared  null  and  void  the 
ordinance  of  secession  and  other  ordinances  and 
proceedings  of  the  convention  of  1861 ;  adopted 
ordinances  repudiating  the  war  debt,  and  provided 
for  an  election  for  state,  county  and  municipal  offi 
cers  and  members  of  Congress,  and  assembling  of 
the  legislature  on  the  third  Monday  in  November, 
1865.  The  convention  then  adjourned,  subject  to 
call  of  the  presiding  officer. 

Worthy  of  note  here  is  the  fact  that  Alabama, 
in  its  sovereignty,  and  represented  by  some  of  its 
best  citizens,  abolished  slavery  within  its  borders. 
Alexander  White,  who  subsequently  was  among  the 
first  to  adopt  "the  new  departure"  (acquiescence  in 
all  the  measures  of  reconstruction),  was  the  only 
delegate  in  the  convention  who  voted  against  the 
proposition  to  make  abolition  of  slavery  constitu 
tional  ;  but  outside  the  convention,  Governor  Parsons 
and  Samuel  Rice,  also  to  become  "new  departurists," 
concurred  with  him ;  while  General  Clanton,  who  was 
the  wise  and  fearless  leader  of  the  Democratic  party 
from  its  reorganization  until  the  day  of  his  tragic 
death,  advocated  both  that  measure  and  the  exten 
sion  of  civil  rights  to  the  negroes. 

And  also  worthy  of  note  is  the  fact  that  Judge 
Brooks,  of  Selma,  Judge  Goldthwaite,  of  Mont 
gomery,  and  others  of  unquestioned  loyalty  to  their 


16  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

people,  shortly  after  in  the  legislature  advocated 
qualified  suffrage  for  negroes.  This  was  prior  to 
the  advent  of  carpetbaggers  and  organization  in 
Alabama  of  the  Republican  party. 

Under  this  authority,  an  election  was  held,  and 
the  legislature  then  elected  assembled  on  November 
20,  1865,  and  ratified  the  amendments  to  the  federal 
Constitution,  excepting  the  fourteenth.  That  was 
regarded  as  equivalent  to  a  bill  of  attainder,  de 
priving  vast  numbers  of  the  rights  of  citizenship 
without  trial.  The  legislature  comprised  a  majority 
of  men  who  had  been  anti-secessionists — the  senate 
at  least  two-thirds;  but  they  had  held  offices  before 
the  war  and  served  the  Confederate  government. 
The  legislature  rejected  the  fourteenth  amendment; 
its  adoption  would  have  been  political  suicide  for  the 
members.  It  enacted  a  law  to  protect  freedmen  in 
Alabama  in  their  rights  of  person  and  property. 
The  federal  authorities  were  duly  notified  of  the  pro 
ceedings,  and  on  December  18,  1865,  Governor  Par 
sons  received  from  Secretary  of  State  Seward  a 
telegram  saying  that  "in  the  judgment  of  the  presi 
dent  the  time  had  arrived  when  the  care  and  conduct 
of  the  affairs  of  Alabama  could  be  remitted  to  the 
constitutional  authorities  chosen  by  the  people 
thereof  without  danger  to  the  peace  and  safety  of 
the  United  States",  and  directing  him  to  transfer 


NATIVE  GOVERNMENT  17 

to  his  excellency  the  governor  of  Alabama,  the 
papers  and  property  in  his  hands.  Accordingly,  on 
December  10,  1865,  Robert  M.  Patton,  of  Lauder- 
dale,  was  inaugurated  governor,  and  Parsons  retired. 

(Patton  was  a  Virginian,  long  settled  as  a  mer 
chant  in  northern  Alabama.  As  a  Whig,  he  had 
served  in  both  houses  of  the  legislature  and  become 
president  of  the  senate.  In  the  election  of  1865, 
he  defeated  Colonel  M.  J.  Bulger.  He  was  intelli 
gent  and  painstaking  in  the  discharge  of  duties. 
Patton  continued  in  the  office  of  governor  until  1868, 
several  months  beyond  the  full  term,  pending  action 
by  Congress  respecting  the  results  of  the  election  of 
that  year,  when  he  was  displaced  by  operation  of 
the  reconstruction  acts.  During  his  incumbency  a 
federal  military  commander,  supported  by  soldiers 
stationed  in  the  capitol,  supervised  all  of  his  ap 
pointments  and  official  acts.) 

As  evidence  of  confidence,  the  legislature  elected 
former  Governor  Parsons  United  States  senator  for 
the  term  ending  March  3,  1871.  At  the  same  time, 
it  chose  George  S.  Houstan  for  the  term  ending 
March  3,  1867,  and  John  Anthony  Winston  for  the 
-term  of  six  years,  commencing  March  4,  1867. 

At  the  election  in  November,  1865,  C.  C.  Langdon 
was  elected  to  Congress  from  the  first  district: 
George  C.  Freemen,  from  the  second ;  Cullen  A. 


1 8  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

Battle,  from  the  third ;  Joseph  W.  Taylor,  from  the 
fourth;  Burwell  T.  Pope,  from  the  fifth,  and 
Thomas  J.  Foster,  from  the  sixth. 

Then  came  early  rumblings  of  the  storm  that  was 
soon  to  break.  These  chosen  men  were  not  per 
mitted  to  take  their  seats  as  representatives,  and 
the  state  was  not  represented  in  Congress  until  1868. 


CHAPTER  THREE 

MILITARY   GOVERNMENT 

March  2,  1867,  after  two  years  of  peace,  Con 
gress  passed  over  President  Johnson's  veto  a  bill 
relegating  the  southern  states  to  the  condition  of 
conquered  provinces.  A  military  commander  was 
appointed  and  authorized  to  supersede  civil  and 
judicial  tribunals  by  military  courts  of  his  own 
creation,  with  power  to  inflict  usual  punishments, 
excepting  only  death. 

This  act  was  supplemented  with  another,  of  July 
13,  forbidding  state  authorities  to  interfere  with  the 
military  commander,  who  was  given  the  additional 
power  to  displace  any  official  and  appoint  his  suc 
cessor.  This  act  provided  that  military  rule  should 
cease  within  a  state  when  a  convention  of  the  people 
thereof  should  frame,  and  the  voters  adopt,  a  con 
stitution  ratifying  the  amendment  to  the  federal 
Constitution  which  conferred  the  suffrage  on 
negroes,  and  being  otherwise  acceptable  to  Congress, 
and  when^the  legislature  also  should  ratify  that 
amendment. 

19 


20  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

The  new  constitution  was  to  be  framed  by 
gates  to  be  chosen  by  votes  of  all  male  citizens  of 
legal  age,  excepting  those  disfrancised  by  the  four 
teenth  amendment;  and  it  was  to  be  ratified  by  an 
affirmative  vote  of  a  majority  of  voters  registered 
under  the  supervision  of  the  military  commander 
and  his  subalterns. 

Under  the  reconstruction  acts  of  1867,  m  April  of 
that  year,  Alabama  became  a  part  of  the  department 
comprising,  with  itself,  the  states  of  Georgia  and 
Florida.  The  military  commander  called  a  conven 
tion  to  frame  a  constitution.  At  the  election  for 
delegates  the  polls  were  kept  open  for  five  days.  The 
whites  held  aloof  from  it.  The  gathering  of  dele 
gates  thus  elected  was  stigmatized  as  "the  carpet 
baggers'  convention."  The  men  who  composed  it 
and  framed  the  constitution  were  in  many  cases 
grossly  corrupt  and  ignorant. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  character  of  the  men 
sent  to  the  convention,  Samuel  Hale,  a  brother  of 
United  States  Senator  Hale,  one  of  the  few  Union 
men  and  later  Republicans  resident  in  Sumter 
county,  wrote  Senator  Wilson  in  January,  1868,  a 
letter  protesting  against  recognition  by  Congress  of 
radicals  in  the  south,  in  which  he  said  that  the  men 
who  sat  in  the  convention  and  framed  the  constitu 
tion  were,  "so  far  as  I  am  acquainted  with  them, 


MILITARY  GOVERNMENT  21 

worthless  vagabonds,  homeless,  houseless,  drunken 
knaves" ;  that  the  Sumter  delegates  were  a  negro  and 
two  whites — Yordy  and  Rolfe.  Rolfe,  he  said,  left 
his  family  in  New  York  and  had  not  seen  them  for 
four  years,  during  which  period  he  had  led  an  im 
moral  life  with  negroes;  that  he  was  known  as  the 
"Hero  of  Two  Shirts,"  having  left  at  a  hotel  in 
Selma,  as  security  for  an  unpaid  hotel  bill,  his  car 
petbag  containing  only  two  shirts ;  that  his  name 
was  not  signed  to  the  constitution  which  he  helped 
to  frame  because  he  was  too  drunk  to  write  it. 
These  men  and  Hays  and  Price,  all  strangers,  were 
the  only  white  men  in  Sumter  county  who  took  part 
in  the  election  for  delegates.  As  an  early  indication 
of  future  leadership,  at  that  election  Price  ordered 
the  negroes  to  secure  their  arms  and  prevent  expul 
sion  from  the  booth  of  one  of  their  members  who 
was  vauntingly  flourishing  a  gun.  Only  interven 
tion  by  cool-headed  whites  prevented  trouble.  Mr. 
Hale,  in  the  letter  quoted  from,  stigmatized  the  elec 
tion  thus :  "As  shameless  a  fraud  as  was  ever  perpe 
trated  upon  the  face  of  the  earth." 

Rolfe  and  Hays  were  wheelwrights,  but  their 
talents  found  employment  in  more  lucrative  occupa 
tions.  Rolfe's  first  u  get-rich-quick"  scheme  was  the 
selling  to  negroes  of  badges,  which  he  said  he  was 
engaged  in  by  order  of  General  Grant. 


22  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

While  agent  of  the  Freedmeirs  Bureau  Hays  de 
frauded  negroes  of  a  thousand  dollars  derived  from 
sales  of  cotton  with  which  they  had  entrusted  him. 
That  was  his  disappearing  act. 

That  convention  deprived  of  the  right  to  vote  all 
men  who  were  proscribed  by  the  fourteenth  amend 
ment  from  holding  office. 

The  constitution  framed  called  for  an  election  in 
February,  1868,  to  which  it  was  to  be  submitted  for 
ratification,  and  at  which  time  officers  were  to  be 
elected.  It  was  submitted  under  a  solemn  congres 
sional  provision  that  if  it  should  not  receive  in  its 
favor  the  ballots  of  a  majority  of  the  registered 
voters,  it  was  to  be  considered  as  rejected. 

The  Democratic  convention  of  1865  entrusted  to 
the  party's  state  executive  committee,  of  which 
General  James  H.  Clanton  was  chairman,  all  matters 
of  policy.  When  the  military  order  for  the  con 
vention  issued,  General  Clanton  called  into  council 
with  the  executive  committee  one  hundred  of  the 
leading  men  of  the  state.  After  deliberation,  they 
concluded  that  the  wisest  course  for  the  party  to 
pursue  would  be  to  go  to  the  polls  and  endeavor  to 
defeat  the  constitution,  but,  in  view  of  the  possi 
bility  of  failure  in  this,  to  place  candidates  in  the 
field,  to  be  voted  for  under  it.  Having  agreed  on 
this  policy,  the  council  was  about  to  adjourn,  when 


MILITARY  GOVERNMENT  23 

the  chairman  received  from  ex-Governor  Parsons, 
who  was  the  accredited  agent  in  Washington  of  the 
Democratic  party,  a  dispatch,  saying : 

"I  am  on  my  way  to  Montgomery;  will  be  there 
to-night.  Don't  adjourn  your  convention;  don't 
act  till  I  get  there." 

The  council  waited,  and  the  former  governor 
arrived  and  delivered  a  speech,  in  which  he  uttered 
the  memorable  sentence : 

"So  far  as  the  reconstruction  measures  are  con 
cerned,  and  this  constitution,  touch  not,  taste  not, 
handle  not  the  unclean  thing." 

He  said  that  this  was  in  accordance  with  the 
advice  of  President  Johnson.  Messrs.  Samuel  Rice 
and  Alexander  White  supported  the  ex-governor, 
and  the  council  was  persuaded  to  reverse  its  decision 
and  advise  the  voters  to  refrain  from  taking  any 
part  in  the  election.  Mr.  White  prepared  the  address 
to  the  voters. 

Accordingly,  the  Democratic  voters  abstained 
from  voting,  and  only  one  Democratic  state  senator 
was  elected,  and  he  was  not  endorsed.  Negroes  in 
battalions,  armed  with  muskets  and  stepping  to  the 
beat  of  drums,  marched  to  the  polls,  stacked  arms, 
placed  guards  about  them,  and  cast  their  ballots  for 
the  constitution  and  their  candidates. 

The  registration  of  voters  for  the  election  of  1868 


24  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

was  under  military  supervision  and  regulation. 
Registration  was  kept  open  at  polling  places  up  to 
and  including  time  of  election.  The  registers  of 
voters  and  election  officers  were  appointed  by  mili 
tary  officers,  and  nearly  every  register  was  a  candi 
date  for  office.  He  was  given  power  to  reject  any 
applicant  for  registration.  Soldiers  were  present  at 
all  polling  places  to  enforce  the  regulations,  which 
forbade  the  challenging  of  illegal  voters  :  citizens  were 
forbidden  under  severe  penalties  to  warn  election 
judges  or  expose  the  fact  even  if  they  should  see  a 
non-resident  or  minor  or  repeater  offer  to  deposit  a 
ballot.  Voters  were  permitted  to  cast  their  ballots 
at  any  precinct  in  the  county.  Negroes  were  eligible 
to  all  offices. 

The  returns  of  the  election  disclosed  the  fact  that 
the  majority  of  the  registered  voters  had  abstained 
from  participation  in  the  election,  and  hence  the  con 
stitution  was  not  adopted  by  the  people — according 
to  the  declaration  of  the  military  authorities,  lacking 
8,000  of  the  requisite  number  of  votes.  In  view  of 
this  authoritative  declaration,  the  radical  candidates 
did  not  claim  the  offices  to  which  they  had  aspired, 
and  the  incumbents  for  the  time  being  were  not  dis 
turbed.  But,  to  the  amazement  of  the  people  and  its 
-  own  dishonor,  Congress  in  June,  1868,  accepted  the 
constitution  as  ratified  by  the  people,  and  recognized 


MILITARY  GOVERNMENT  25 

the  candidates  as  elected  officers,  and  in  July  they 
were  installed  by  military  power,  the  former  officers 
retiring  under  protest. 

In  order  that  the  reader  may  understand  the  situa 
tion  and  how  poorly  prepared  were  the  people  for 
such  a  reign,  we  must  go  back  to  the  beginning  and 
note  other  occurrences  which  had  a  direct  bearing  on 
that  situation. 


CHAPTER  FOUR 

A   GRAVE    PROBLEM 

At  the  termination  of  the  war  between  the  sec 
tions,  the  southern  people  had  thrust  upon  them  for 
solution  the  gravest  and  most  difficult  problem  with 
which  the  white  race  on  this  continent  was  ever  per 
plexed, — how  to  preserve  their  civilization  with  the 
government  operating  in  opposition  to  their  efforts. 

After  four  years  of  warfare,  the  south  was  pros 
trate  before  the  victorious  people  of  the  north,  whose 
armies  were  quartered  in  garrisons  everywhere  in 
the  surrendered  territory,  to  enforce  with  arms,  if 
necessary,  whatever  oppressive  and  humiliating 
measures  might  be  conceived  in  hatred  and  ven 
geance  by  fanatics  whose  intolerance  had  made  the 
bloody  conflict  irrepressible,  and  who  were  deter 
mined  to  extend  and  perpetuate  the  political  power 
gained  by  conquest.  The  means  adopted  were  en 
franchisement  of  the  emancipated  slaves  and  dis- 
franchisement  of  all  white  men  who  had  at  all  dis 
tinguished  themselves  as  leaders,  while  extending 

26 


A  GRAVE  PROBLEM  27 

favors  to  those  who  would  ally  themselves  with  the 
oppressors  and  betray  their  countrymen. 

The  difficulties  of  the  situation  in  which  the  de 
feated  southerners  were  placed  were  appalling. 
Naught  of  the  former  wealth  of  the  country  was 
left  save  the  land — which  in  the  disorganized  state 
of  labor  was  almost  a  burden  to  the  possessors — 
and  some  cotton  which  had  accumulated  because  ex 
portation  was  prevented  by  the  blockade  of  the 
ports ;  and  upon  this  the  federal  government  imposed 
an  unconstitutional  tax  of  three  cents  a  pound. 
Farm  implements  were  crude  and  scarce ;  the  neces 
sities  of  the  Confederate  government  in  its  expiring 
struggles  had  stripped  the  country  of  the  best  of  the 
draft  and  food  animals ;  in  the  Black  Belt  there  were 
no  factories ;  development  of  transportation  had  been 
checked  in  its  incipiency ;  education  was  almost  aban 
doned,  and  the  civil  laws  suspended.  Everything 
had  to  be  organized  or  reorganized. 

"'Cotton  was  one  of  the  principal  resources  left  to 
the  people  at  the  close  of  the  war.  In  great  demand 
and  readily  convertible  into  money  at  prices  ranging 
from  fifty  cents  a  pound  upward,  and  in  considerable 
quantities,  it  would  have  furnished  means  for  a 
"fresh  start"  had  the  people  been  permitted  to  hold 
it  in  undisputed  possession ;  but  the  government  be 
grudged  even  this  remnant  of  lost  fortunes.  Un- 


28  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

fortunately,  during  the  war  agents  of  the  Con 
federacy  from  time  to  time  contracted  for  quantities 
of  cotton,  to  be  paid  for  in  bonds,  but  in  most  cases 
there  had  been  no  actual  transfer  of  either  bonds  or 
cotton,  and  the  latter  remained  on  the  plantations. 
After  the  surrender  of  General  Taylor  to  General 
Canby,  the  federal  commander  promulgated  an 
order  requiring  all  persons  who  held  such  cotton  to 
surrender  it  to  the  United  States  agents,  under 
penalty  of  confiscation  of  their  property.  The  mili 
tary  authorities  claimed  this  cotton  as  a  prize  of  war, 
and  treasury  agents — some  of  them  fictitious,  as 
afterward  proven — were  soon  ranging  the  country 
in  search  for  it.  The  holders  believed  that  the  ques 
tion  of  ownership  was  at  least  debatable.  Prior  to 
the  surrender,  the  Confederate  government,  fearing 
that  federal  raiders  would  seize  the  cotton,  ordered 
that  it  be  destroyed  by  the  holders ;  but  the  authority 
of  that  government  was  not  then  potent,  and  the 
planters,  instead  of  obeying  the  order,  conveyed  the 
bales  to  places  of  concealment  in  swamps  and  else 
where,  and  believed  that  this  act  confirmed  their 
claim  to  ownership.  Some  of  the  cotton  was  thus 
concealed  when  the  agents  began  their  search.  The 
order  of  seizure  was  subsequently  so  modified  as  to 
permit  the  original  holders  to  claim  one-fourth  of 
the  cotton  as  compensation  for  caretaking.  Very 


A   GRAVE   PROBLEM  29 

few  took  advantage  of  this  concession;  and,  indeed, 
the  greedy  agents  actually  suppressed  the  order  for 
months  while  the  seizures  were  in  progress.  At 
torneys  who  contested  before  military  tribunals  the 
right  of  seizure  argued  that,  by  reason  of  non 
delivery,  sales  to  the  Confederate  government  had 
not  been  completed,  and  that  the  federal  government 
had  no  right  to  capture  the  cotton  after  final  sur 
render  of  the  Confederate  armies ;  but  in  some 
instances  these  attorneys  were  arrested  and  threat 
ened  with  imprisonment  unless  they  abated  their  zeal 
in  behalf  of  clients. 

There  was  in  resulting  evil  practices  a  touch  of 
picturesqueness.  The  unconquered  and  unconquer 
able  veterans  of  the  vanquished  southern  armies,  in 
many  instances  impoverished,  were  ripe  for  any 
enterprise  which  promised  congenial  adventure  and 
spoils  which  they  regarded  as  legitimate.  The  agents 
went  about  supported  by  federal  troops,  and  many 
were  the  clashes  between  the  latter  and  so-called 
guerrilla  bands  composed  of  their  late  antagonists 
on  other  and  more  glorious  fields.  These  bands 
were  actuated  by  the  conviction  that  the  Confederate 
government  having  had  no  clear  title  to  ownership 
of  the  cotton,  the  conquerors  succeeded  to  none; 
and  so  they  took  up  the  contest  where  the  intimi 
dated  attorneys  dropped  it,  and  contested  with  the 


30  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

agents  and  their  armed  supporters.  These  agents 
were  well  supplied  with  army  teams  and  wagons, 
and  often  these,  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  "guer 
rillas,"  served  the  captors  as  a  convenient  means  of 
transportation  of  booty.  Yet,  it  sometimes  hap 
pened  that  the  guerrillas  were  the  captives,  and  when 
in  the  toils  were  in  sore  straits  to  raise  the  ransom 
which  was  exacted  in  lieu  of  arrest  and  arraignment 
for  trial.  Even  steamboats  were  hauled  to  and  re 
lieved  of  cargoes.  That  was  the  golden  era  for 
steamboatmen,  when  freight  charges  and  salaries, 
especially  of  pilots,  were  phenomenal. 

These  transactions  soon  degenerated  into  plunder 
pure  and  simple,  involving  private  cotton  to  which 
the  government  could  lay  no  sort  of  claim. 

Perhaps  there  had  been  collusion  between  holders 
of  "Confederate"  cotton  and  the  raiding  bands 
which  seized  and  bore  it  off;  anyhow,  the  inevitable 
effect  was  that  unscrupulous  men,  taking  advantage 
of  popular  tolerance  of  practices  which  originally 
sprang  from  patriotic  impulses,  disregarded  private 
rights  and  indiscriminately  stole.  Planters  paid  for 
guards  as  high  as  thirty  dollars  each  per  night  at 
critical  times.  Men  who  were  unaccustomed  to  the 
command  of  money  grew  rich  in  a  brief  space  ancf 
correspondingly  lavish  in  their  expenditures.  Ex 
travagance  and  demoralization  which  left  their  en- 


A  GRAVE  PROBLEM  31 

during  impress  ensued.  Admissions  were  made  in 
high  quarters  in  after  years  that  not  one-tenth  of 
the  proceeds  of  cotton  seized  by  agents  ever  went 
into  the  treasury  of  the  United  States.  One  example 
"./ill  suffice:  An  agent  in  Demopolis  claimed  and 
was  alloveci  for  four  months'  services,  on  the  basis 
of  one- fourth  of  the  cotton  seized  by  him,  $80,000; 
and  the  settlement  was  between  him  and  military 
authorities  who  were  quite  as  adept  as  he  in  the  art 
of  pilfering.  Thus  in  a  time  of  stress  the  producers 
were  despoiled  and  adventurers  enriched  by  the  un 
generous  policy  of  the  victorious  government. 

The  following  facts  are  gathered  from  evidence 
taken  before  the  committee  in  Congress  in  the  inves 
tigation  as  to  General  Howard: 

At  the  close  of  the  war  there  were  held  in  the 
south  at  least  five  million  bales  of  cotton,  worth  in 
Liverpool  $500,000,000.  Only  a  fraction  of  this 
cotton  was  owned  by  the  Confederate  states  gov 
ernment,  and  this  was  turned  over  to  General 
E.  R.  S.  Canby  by  General  E.  Kirby  Smith  on  May 
24,  1865.  Besides  the  swarm  of  official  agents,  in 
formers  and  spies  sent  down  by  the  Treasury  De 
partment  in  search  of  Confederate  cotton,  contracts 
were  made  with  private  individuals  to  engage  in  the 
work.  Much  cotton  was  taken  from  plantations 


32  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

before  the  owners  returned  to  their  homes  after  the 
disbandment  of  the  armies.  Seizures  were  indis 
criminate.  Proof  of  private  ownership  had  to  be 
supported  by  tender  of  toll ;  there  was  no  redress. 

A  Treasury  Department  regulation  required  that 
all  cotton  seized  in  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  states 
should  be  shipped  to  Simon  Draper,  United  States 
cotton  agent  in  New  York  City;  and  that  seized  on 
the  upper  Mississippi  river  and  in  northern  Georgia 
and  northern  Alabama  to  William  P.  Mellen,  agent 
in  Cincinnati.  These  agents  sold  by  samples  which 
were  spurious  and  inferior  to  the  cotton  which  they 
represented.  Accordingly,  cotton  worth  sixty  cents 
to  one  dollar  per  pound  was  sold  for  ten  to  fifteen 
cents.  The  purchasers  were  in  collusion  with  the 
agent.  By  the  system  of  "plucking,"  the  weight  of 
bales  was  reduced  anywhere  from  one  hundred  to 
two  hundred  pounds  before  they  were  sold :  the 
plucked  cotton  was  termed  "waste  cotton/'  packed 
and  sold  as  "trash"  to  mills,  but  not  at  trash  prices. 
These  terms  figured  only  in  the  reports  to  the  de 
partment.  Sometimes  owners  traced  stolen  cotton 
to  the  New  York  or  Cincinnati  agency;  and  if  a 
thousand  bales  were  involved,  the  agent  reported 
that  only  two  hundred  had  been  received,  and  of 
very  inferior  quality,  and  was  sold  for  ten  or  fifteen 
cents  per  pound,  which  his  books  would  prove ;  that 


A   GRAVE   PROBLEM  33 

transportation,  storage  and  commissions  left  only  a 
small  sum.  Draper,  when  he  became  cotton  agent, 
was  a  bankrupt.  Subsequently  he  settled  his  debts 
and  when  he  died  was  a  multimillionaire.  Fifty 
million  dollars'  worth  of  cotton  was  shipped  to 
Draper;  the  government  derived  only  $15,000,000 
net  from  that  source  as  the  reward  for  the  wrong 
which  it  had  committed  in  entrusting  the  enforce 
ment  of  its  doubtful  claim  against  the  impoverished 
southern  people  to  dishonest  and  unscrupulous 
agents. 

The  Confederate  States  government  imposed  a 
tax  in  kind  upon  all  provisions  produced  on  planta 
tions — one-tenth.  The  first  year  after  the  war  this 
tax  was  enforced  in  some  isolated  sections  by  orders 
of  minor  military  officers,  and  collected  by  agents. 
Of  course  this  was  fraudulent,  and  was  stopped  after 
a  while. 


CHAPTER  FIVE 
THE  FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU 

Meanwhile,  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  had  been 
established.  General  Swayne  promulgated  an  order 
recognizing  as  agents  of  the  bureau  former  civil 
magistrates  who  could  and  would  obtain  endorse 
ment  of  negroes ;  but,  as  a  rule,  carpetbaggers  rilled 
the  places.  Offices  were  opened  at  the  county  seats, 
where  complaints  of  freedmen  were  lodged  and 
investigations  conducted.  The  agents  prescribed  a 
uniform  division  of  products  of  the  soil  between 
planters  and  hands.  They  supervised  all  contracts 
and  regulated  the  conduct  of  affairs  between  em 
ployer  and  employe,  and  their  dicta  were  absolute 
and  final,  being  enforced,  if  necessary,  by  soldiers 
of  the  garrison. 

The  agents  gave  notice  that  nobody  would  be 
allowed  to  employ  freedmen  unless  the  contracts 
were  submitted  to  and  approved  by  them  and  left  in 
their  custody.  They  gave  ear  to  any  tale  of  com 
plaining  freedmen,  arrested  the  white  man  com- 

34 


THE  FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU  35 

plained  of,  tried  and  punished  him,  unless  he  proved 
willing  to  purchase  immunity.  Sometimes  after  the 
planter  had  contracted  in  the  prescribed  manner 
with  freedmen,  and  had  his  crops  in  process  of  culti 
vation,  the  hands  would  quit  work,  and  only  inter 
vention  by  the  agent  would  make  them  return.  Such 
intervention  cost  as  high  as  ten  dollars  per  hand, 
and  the  occasion  for  it  might  recur  before  the  crops 
could  be  gathered.  Some  of  the  agents  secured  plan 
tations  and  used  them  as  refuges  for  dissatisfied 
freedmen,  who  were  fed  and  clothed. 

The  agents  were  as  a  rule  "fanatics  without  char 
acter  or  responsibility,  and  were  selected  as  fit  instru 
ments  to  execute  the  partisan  and  unconstitutional 
behests  of  a  most  unscrupulous  head."  (Senator 
Beck,  in  an  official  report.)  Some  of  them  were 
preachers,  and  had  been  selected  as  being  the  most 
devout,  zealous  and  loyal  of  a  certain  religious  sect. 
In  league  meetings  they  told  the  negroes  that  al 
though  they  had  been  married  according  to  planta 
tion  custom  for  many  years,  they  must  procure 
licenses  and  be  remarried.  Thus  they  made  large" 
sums  in  fees,  in  many  instances  from  old  couples 
who  had  grandchildren  and  great-grandchildren. 

All  of  this  was  humiliating  and  irritating  to  the 
planters,  but  submitted  to  so  long  as  the  agents  con 
fined  their  activities  to  legitimate  functions.  But 


36  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

they  soon  became  mischievously  meddlesome,  and 
discovered  in  their  powers  means  for  promoting 
their  political  fortunes. 

As  a  body,  the  negroes  had  been  conducting  them 
selves  with  propriety,  and  good  feeling  prevailed. 
Their  greatest  delight  was  in  the  dignity  of  unaccus 
tomed  surnames,  duster  coats,  gauntlet  gloves, 
albums,  clocks  and  other  wares,  with  which  enter 
prising  northern  peddlers  tempted  them.  Their 
childish  delight  in  these  novel  possessions  for  a 
while  filled  the  measure  of  their  happiness.  But 
some  of  them  who  had  been  following  armies  con 
tracted  nomadic  habits;  others  were  incapable  of 
rational  exercise  of  their  novel  privileges,  and  be 
came  disturbers  of  the  peace.  Their  depredations 
soon  rendered  stock  raising  impracticable.  Every 
plantation  had  a  gin-house,  and  these  houses,  with 
their  valuable  contents,  were  exposed  to  incendiaries 
seeking  revenge  for  real  or  fancied  grievances,  and 
many  were  destroyed.  Men  with  the  "easy  money" 
acquired  during  the  period  of  cotton  stealing  set  up 
crossroad  stores  at  every  available  point  and  dis 
pensed  vile  whiskey  in  barter  for  bags  of  loose 
cotton  and  corn,  ostensibly  the  "shares"  of  those 
offering  them,  but  really  often  stolen  from  lint 
rooms  and  cribs,  and  even  from  the  ungarnered 
crops  in  the  fields.  These  traders  did  an  immense 


THE  FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU  37 

business,  many  of  them  setting  up  gins  and  baling 
screws.  The  existing  "sundown  and  sunrise"  law 
was  enacted  to  destroy  this  nefarious  traffic.  It  pro 
hibited  the  sale  of  farm  products  between  sunset 
and  sunrise. 


CHAPTER  SIX 

MILITARY   REGULATIONS 

Another  cause  of  irritation  was  the  offensive 
conduct  of  soldiers  composing  the  garrisons,  which 
provoked  collisions  with  the  more  impetuous  citizens. 
In  1865  tne  federal  soldiers  in  Tuscaloosa,  Greens 
boro,  Eutaw  ahd  other  towns  subjected  the  people 
to  very  offensive  regulations.  Only  a  few  examples 
need  be  mentioned  as  exhibiting  the  temper  of  both 
sides:  The  former  soldiers  of  the  Confederacy, 
having  no  means  with  which  to  replenish  their  ward 
robes,  wore  their  uniforms.  The  federals  threat 
ened,  and  sometimes  attempted,  to  cut  the  buttons 
from  the  old  gray  coats,  and  the  proud  wearers 
were  forced  to  resort  to  the  expedient  of  covering 
them  with  thin  cloth  rather  than  let  them  serve  as  a 
pretext  for  insults.  Flags  were  stretched  across  the 
sidewalks,  so  that  pedestrians  would  have  to  pass 
under  them.  To  defeat  the  obvious  purpose,  men 
and  women,  in  going  about,  resorted  to  the  road 
way  or  diverged  from  the  sidewalks  at  points  where 

38 


MILITARY  REGULATIONS  39 

the  flags  were  placed.  In  some  instances  these  un 
willing  and  protesting  people  were  seized  and  forced 
under  the  flags.  These  and  other  practices,  devised 
to  provoke  the  people  to  exhibitions  of  hostility, 
caused  severe  smarting.  Perhaps  many  young  men 
who  had  received  war  schooling  were  not  reluctant 
to  encounter  their  former  antagonists. 

A  memorable  tragedy,  with  annoying  conse 
quences,  resulted  from  such  an  encounter.  August 
31,  1865,  election  day,  the  brothers  Tom  and  Toode 
Cowan,  formerly  heroic  members  of  Forrest's  cav 
alry,  became  involved  in  a  controversy  with  a  squad 
of  soldiers  of  the  garrison  in  Greensboro;  in  the 
resulting  affray  pistols  were  used;  the  younger 
Cowan  killed  one  of  the  soldiers,  while  his  brother 
dangerously  wounded  another.  The  slayer  mounted 
a  horse  and  escaped,  but  the  intrepid  Tom  scorned* 
flight  and  yielded  only  to  overpowering  numbers. 
Intense  excitement  prevailed;  the  enraged  soldiers 
sprang  to  arms,  seized  Cowan,  and,  defying  their 
officers,  prepared  to  hang  the  prisoner.  At  the  criti 
cal  moment  came  a  message  from  the  wounded  man, 
generously  acknowledging  he  was  the  aggressor  and 
pleading  for  a  fair  trial  for  Cowan.  This  appeased 
the  military  mob  and  the  prisoner  was  locked  up. 
That  night  squads  of  cavalry  roamed  the  country, 
ostensibly  seeking  the  fugitive,  but  really  to  disarm 


40  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

and  arrest  the  planters.  Mr.  Cowan  was  tried  and 
acquitted.  His  brother  was  not  apprehended. 

In  some  cases  the  soldiers  were  insubordinate  and 
manifested  hostility  to  the  people.  One  notable 
example  in  illustration  is  recalled :  During  the 
hours  of  darkness  soldiers  burned  the  Episcopal 
church  in  Demopolis.  Some  of  them  were  detected 
with  articles  stolen  from  the  sacred  edifice,  and  the 
colonel  was  requested  to  have  the  impious  robbers 
arrested.  That  officer  declined  to  make  the  order, 
because  the  guilty  men  were  dangerous  characters 
and  would  seek  revenge  if  called  to  account.  In 
deed,  they  threatened  that  when  transferred  from 
Demopolis  they  would  set  fire  to  the  town.  To 
prevent  the  execution  of  this  purpose,  another 
colonel  was  substituted  for  the  commander  of  the 
regiment,  and  he  placed  sentinels  around  the  quarters 
and  marched  the  men  away  in  ignorance  of  the  fact 
that  it  was  their  final  departure. 

In  Greensboro,  in  1867,  was  enacted  another  re 
grettable  tragedy,  the  attendant  circumstances  of 
which  intensified  the  growing  hostility  between  the 
races.  John  C.  Orick  shot  and  killed  Aleck  Webb, 
negro  register  of  voters.  The  shooting  occurred  in 
daylight  and  on  one  of  the  principal  sidewalks. 
Orick  calmly  retired  from  the  scene,  locked  the 
doors  of  his  store,  and  in  disguise  fled  the  town. 


MILITARY  REGULATIONS  41 

Orick  was  a  bold,  dashing  and  handsome  young 
man  who  had  won  enviable  laurels  in  the  war.  When 
hardly  more  than  a  boy,  his  adventurous  spirit  im 
pelled  him  to  leave  home  without  parental  consent 
and  attach  himself  to  Colonel  Mosby's  command. 
One  of  his  achievements  is  worthy  of  mention  here : 
As  an  "observer"  he  visited  Baltimore  and  Wash 
ington,  and  in  the  latter  city  ascertained  the  time  of 
departure  of  the  army  pay  train  on  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  railroad.  Reporting  to  his  commander 
the  valuable  information  he  had  acquired,  successful 
plans  were  formed  for  the  capture  of  the  train  by 
Mosby's  command.  With  his  share  of  the  booty 
obtained  in  this  enterprise,  Orick,  after  the  final  sur 
render,  purchased  a  stock  of  goods  and  established 
himself  in  business  in  Greensboro. 

The  negroes  of  the  town  and  vicinity  bitterly 
resented  the  killing  of  Webb,  and  during  the  night 
large  bands  of  them  roamed  the  surrounding 
country,  avowedly  seeking  the  slayer,  but  really  bent 
on  any  mischief  for  which  opportunity  might  offer. 
One  band  went  to  the  Gewin  premises.  A  young 
man,  a  member  of  the  family,  in  his  night  clothes 
and  barefooted,  was  encountered  in  the  yard.  See 
ing  that  the  marauders  intercepted  retreat  to  the 
house,  Gewin  fled  to  the  woods,  hotly  pursued. 
After  a  chase  which  extended  for  a  mile,  over  rough 


42  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

fields  and  woods,  the  fleeing  man  was  overhauled, 
tied  to  the  bare  back  of  a  horse  and  conveyed  to  the 
office  of  Dr.  Blackford,  in  Greensboro.  After  a 
lengthy  parley,  his  friends  secured  his  release. 

At  dusk  the  town  was  thronged  with  infuriated 
armed  negroes,  who  threatened  to  apply  the  torch. 
After  some  of  the  leading  citizens  had  vainly  expos 
tulated  with  them,  the  whites  armed  themselves  and 
prepared  to  expel  them  by  force;  but  when  Gewin 
was  released,  the  negroes  retired,  sullenly,  and  a 
clash  was  averted. 

The  Gewin  family  and  its  connections  comprised 
a  considerable  number  of  brave  and  resolute  men, 
of  remarkably  fine  physique,  and  they  and  their 
friends  were  indignant  with  Blackford,  the  probate 
judge,  because  of  the  suspicion  that  he  had  directed 
the  negroes  who  committed  the  outrage, — a  suspi 
cion  justified  by  the  fact  that  Gewin  was  conveyed 
to  Blackford's  office.  Everybody  sympathized  with 
tliem.  It  was  said  that  Blackford  told  the  negroes 
they  should  avenge  the  killing  of  Webb,  and  that 
he  instigated  the  incendiary  threats,  and  he  was 
thenceforward  regarded  as  a  factor  of  disturbance 
in  the  community. 

As  a  result  of  these  occurrences,  an  organization 
was  formed  in  Greensboro  for  public  defense,  and 
arms  were  obtained.  The  members  were,  in  event 


MILITARY  REGULATIONS  43 

of  necessity,  to  assemble  at  the  ringing  of  a  certain 
bell,  and  a  rendezvous  was  selected.  No  oath  was 
required  of  the  members. 

The  first  attempt  to  enforce  the  flag  regulation  in 
the  case  of  a  woman,  in  Tuscaloosa,  was  the  last. 
Intrepid  Ryland  Randolph,  editor  of  the  Monitor, 
in  uncontrollable  indignation  seized  a  sabre  and  in, 
person  challenged  the  responsible  commander  to 
mortal  combat.  Declining  the  proposed  close  en 
counter,  that  official  thenceforward  was  more  cir 
cumspect  in  his  conduct. 

The  story  of  Randolph's  career  is  an  interesting 
part  of  the  history  of  Tuscaloosa.  As  an  editor, 
he  was  belligerent,  and  relentless  in  his  denunciation 
of  radical  maladministration  of  public  affairs.  So 
effective  was  his  hostility  that  publication  of  his 
paper  (official  organ  of  the  Ku  Klux)  was  sup 
pressed  by  military  order.  He  accepted  a  challenge 
to  a  duel  provoked  by  attacks  upon  the  chief  justice 
of  the  state  supreme  court,  addressed  to  him  by  the 
judge's  son-in-law;  but  on  the  field  mutual  friends 
effected  an  amicable  and  honorable  settlement. 

A  less  dignified  encounter  involved  him  in  more 
serious  difficulties.  Opposite  the  Monitor  office  a 
number  of  negroes  were  assembled  one  day,  and  two 
of  them  assaulted  a  white  man.  Suddenly  Ran 
dolph,  with  pistol  and  bowie-knife  in  hand,  ap- 


44  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

peared  in  the  midst  of  the  struggling  throng.  One 
shot  was  fired  by  him,  when  he,  in  turn,  became  the 
object  of  attack.  One  of  the  assailants,  a  political 
leader,  received  in  his  side  a  thrust  from  Randolph's 
bowie,  and  another  in  the.  back,  where  the  broken 
point  of  the  knife  remained.  Within  a  few  minutes 
the  prostrate  leader  was  the  only  one  who  remained 
on  the  scene.  But  the  negroes,  with  augmented 
numbers,  reassembled  a  short  distance  away.  Ran 
dolph  returned  to  his  office  and  reappeared  with  a 
shotgun.  His  dauntless  bearing  discouraged  further 
hostile  demonstration  by  the  blacks.  In  consequence 
of  this  affair,  Randolph  was  arrested  by  the  soldiers 
and  taken  to  Montgomery  for  trial.  En  route,  by 
stage-coach,  he  was  made  a  spectacle  for  gloating 
negroes.  He  was  acquitted,  and  his  return  was 
made  an  occasion  of  popular  manifestation  of 
esteem.  A  cavalcade  met  him  some  miles  outside 
of  Tuscaloosa,  and  on  nearer  approach  to  town  was 
magnified  into  a  vast  procession  of  carriages  and 
marchers,  embracing  men  and  women  and  school 
children.  The  procession  moved  to  the  sound  of 
bells.  A'  great  meeting,  with  speechmaking,  fol 
lowed. 

At  that  time  the  University  of  Alabama,  at  Tus 
caloosa,  was  controlled  by  the  radicals  and  boycotted 
by  the  whites.  A  brother  of  Governor  Smith  was 


MILITARY  REGULATIONS  45 

a  regent  of  the  institution,  and  this  regent's  son  a 
student.  One  of  the  professors,  Vaughan,  had  been 
persistently  assailed  by  the  Monitor,  which  charged 
him  with  incompetence  and  drunkenness.  It  was  said 
that  Vaughan  enlisted  Smith  as  a  champion.  Any 
how,  the  two  sought  Randolph  on  the  streets  and 
found  him  in  conversation  with  a  friend.  While 
X^aughan  stood  some  distance  away,  Smith  ap 
proached  Randolph  and  insultingly  jostled  him. 
Simultaneously  and  without  hesitation,  the  two  men 
drew  pistols  and  began  firing,  each  discharging  five 
chambers  of  his  revolver.  One  shot  struck  a  thick 
book  in  Randolph's  coat  pocket  and  lodged  therein ; 
another  struck  above  the  knee  and  ranged  up  the 
thigh,  his  leg  being  crooked  at  the  moment.  This 
shot  necessitated  amputation  of  the  injured  limb. 
An  innocent  bystander  on  the  opposite  side  of  thtf 
street  was  killed  by  a  stray  bullet.  Smith  and 
Vaughan  were  arrested.  The  former  was  rescued 
by  fellow  students  and  fled  to  Utah. 

Randolph  survived  the  reconstruction  period  and 
enjoyed  the  restoration  of  white  supremacy.  He 
died  in  1903  from  the  effects  of  a  fall  in  a  street 
car. 

An  incident  of  the  military  regime  in  Eutaw 
early  embittered  relations  between  the  people  and 
their  rulers.  An  "undesirable  citizen"  was  given  a 


46  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

ride  on  a  rail.  In  the  court  martial  trial  of  the 
accused,  James  !AL  Steele,  Thomas  W.  Roberts, 
F.  H.  Mundy,  John  Cullen,  Hugh  L.  White,  William 
Pettigrew  and  Mr.  Strayhorn  were  sentenced  to 
hard  labor  at  Dry  Tortugas  for  periods  ranging 
from  two  to  six  years.  The  circumstances  attend 
ing  their  treatment  as  prisoners  exhibited  harshness 
which  aroused  indignation.  Handcuffed  and  chained, 
they  were  conveyed  by  a  squad  to  New  Orleans 
and  thence  by  sea  to  the  island  prison.  They  were 
not  permitted  to  communicate  with  their  families 
or  friends  nor  to  receive  funds  to  relieve  their  wants. 
Their  sufferings  and  indignities  were  severe  and 
humiliating.  An  appeal  in  their  behalf,  with  a  pre 
sentation  of  the  facts  connected  with  the  trial,  was 
made  to  General  Meade,  and  that  commander  re 
mitted  the  sentence.  The  return  of  the  victims  to 
their  homes  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  memorable 
demonstration  of  popular  feeling. 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 

THE  UNION  LEAGUE 

In  pursuance  of  their  schemes  which  culminated 
at  the  election  in  1868,  the  carpetbag  adventurers 
early  in  1867  organized  everywhere  in  Alabama 
branches  of  the  Union  League,  a  secret,  oathbound 
political  society,  with  all  the  mysticism  of  grips, 
signs,  signals  and  passwords,  national  in  scope,  with 
grand  national  and  grand  state  councils.  Secrecy 
and  obedience  to  commands  were  enjoined  under 
severest  penalties,  including  even  death.  Their  meet 
ing  places  were  guarded  by  armed  sentinels.  The 
negro  members  were  taught  to  disregard  the  feel 
ings  and  interests  of  the  whites,  and  told  that  if  their 
former  masters  should  obtain  control  of  the  govern 
ment,  they  would  re-enslave  them;  and  this  was  an 
irresistible  appeal  to  ignorant  people  enjoying  the 
first  delights  of  release  from  bondage.  On  the  other 
hand,  they  were  promised  that  if  the  Republicans 
should  gain  control,  they  would  enact  such  oppres 
sive  tax  laws  that  the  landowners  would  be  unable 

47 


48  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

to  meet  the  exactions,  and  consequently  their  lands 
would  be  forfeited;  after  which  the  Republicans 
would  allot  them  in  parcels  of  forty  acres,  together 
with  a  mule,  to  each  head  of  a  negro  family  resident 
thereon;  they  were  told,  further,  that,  in  order  to 
facilitate  and  expedite  this  process  of  confiscation 
and  apportionment,  they  should  slight  their  work 
and  thus  increase  the  difficulties  under  which  their 
former  masters  would  have  to  struggle  to  save  their 
properties  from  spoliation.  The  student  of  history 
should  not  be  harsh  in  judgment  of  the  negro 
because  of  his  susceptibility  to  a  lure  so  enticing. 
He  was  ignorant,  and  regarded  every  pretentious 
white  stranger  as  one  of  that  great  army  which  had 
liberated  him  from  bondage. 

Serious  as  was  the  situation,  it  was  not  without 
amusement  in  its  demonstration  of  the  negro's  gulli 
bility.  A  bogus  "land  agent"  circulated  slips  con 
veying  directions  regarding  "preemption  of  home 
steads,"  and  the  credulous  negroes  bought  them,  and, 
besides,  painted  sticks  with  pointed  ends  to  be 
driven  into  the  ground  to  mark  their  boundaries; 
they  also  purchased  chances  in  a  sort  of  lottery  for 
the  distribution  of  parcels  of  land.  All  of  these  were 
sold  under  alleged  authority  received  from  the  gov 
ernment  at  Washington,  all  dependent  on  the  success 
of  the  Republican  party. 


THE  UNION  LEAGUE  49 

By  request  of  President  Johnson,  General  Grant 
in  1865  made  a  tour  of  the  southern  states,  to  learn 
the  feelings  and  intentions  of  the  people  and  to 
ascertain  to  what  extent,  in  the  interest  of  economy, 
the  military  forces  there  could  be  reduced.  He  re 
ported  that  white  troops  excited  no  opposition ; 
thinking  men  would  offer  no  violence  to  them.  But 
black  troops  demoralized  labor,  "and  the  late  slaves 
seem  to  be  infused  with  the  idea  that  the  property 
of  their  late  masters  should  by  right  belong  to  them, 
or  at  least  should  have  no  protection  from  the  col 
ored  soldiers.  There  is  danger  of  collision  being 
brought  by  such  causes." 

The  so-called  abandoned  lands  on  the  coast  of 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia — lands  from  which 
whites  had  fled  to  escape  dangers  of  the  war — were 
actually  seized  and  colonized  with  wandering 
negroes,  though  the  lands  were  afterward  restored 
to  the  owners.  The  germ  of  the  "forty  acres  and  a 
mule"  idea,  no  doubt,  originated  in  those  colonies. 
The  idea  was  of  early  conception,  as  the  Grant 
report  shows. 

The  first  annoyances  caused  by  the  league  were 
the  neglect  of  field  work  by  negroes  in  order  to 
attend  political  meetings  in  daylight,  and  taking 
hard-worked  mules  from  lots  at  night  and  riding 
them  to  league  meetings.  But  in  the  course  of  time 


50  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

the  organization  assumed  a  military  aspect,  drilling 
regularly.  Bodies  appeared  in  procession,  in  regular 
company  order,  with  arms,  banners,  drums  and  fifes, 
the  officers  wearing  side-arms.  At  the  election  they 
were  met  outside  the  towns  by  emissaries  and  fur 
nished  with  tickets,  and  then  proceeded  to  the  poll 
ing  places  and  deposited  them  as  directed.  All  of 
this  appealed  to  the  negroes'  taste  for  novelty  and 
spectacle. 


CHAPTER  EIGHT 

A  REPUBLICAN   BLUNDER 

This  narrative  is  now  brought  again  to  the  point 
at  which  it  digressed,  the  election  on  the  constitu 
tion,  but  before  resuming  that  subject  a  few  words 
of  comment  here  will  not  be  out  of  place. 

The  perfid^pf  Congress  in  imposing  upon  the 
people  of  Alabama,  in  violation  of  its  own  solemn 
covenant,  a  constitution  which  they  had  rejected  in 
a  lawful  manner,  was  a  blunder  fatal  to  the  future 
influence  of  the  Republican  party  in  Alabama.  The 
fourteenth  amendment  had  already  injured  the  party 
because  of  its  application  to  great  numbers  of  men 
who  might  have  allied  themselves  with  it  if  they  had 
not  been  involved  in  the  proscription.  They  had 
opposed  secession  as  long  as  there  was  any  reason  in 
opposition,  and  then  reluctantly  adapted  themselves 
to  the  situation.  Jefferson  Davis  had  been  in  prison, 
demanding  trial  and  ready  to  abide  the  result;  he 
was  discharged,  and  the  proceedings  looking  to  per 
sonal  punishment  abandoned.  Other  leaders,  includ 
ing  Admiral  Semmes,  "the  pirate,"  as  he  was  termed 

51 


52  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

in  intensity  of  hatred,  were  at  their  homes,  pursu 
ing  the  vocations  of  peace  and  ready  to  try  the 
issue.  The  excuse  for  abandoning  the  prosecution 
was  that,  the  fourteenth  amendment  having  imposed 
the  penalty  of  deprivation  of  citizen  rights,  the 
courts  could  not  inflict  other  punishment. 

Thus,  the  men  who  had,  at  the  cost  of  popular 
good  will  and  private  friendship,  opposed  with  all 
their  abilities  severance  of  the  Union  were  equally 
subject  to  a  penalty  deemed  adequate  for  "the  arch 
traitor'5  and  "the  pirate,"  so  called. 

Then,  there  were  thousands  of  men  in  northern 
Alabama  not  subject  to  the  proscription,  who  were 
nursing  the  grievance  that  Democrats  had  precipi 
tated  secession  without  permitting  the  people  to  vote 
on  the  ordinance.  They  believed  that,  had  it  been 
submitted,  it  would  have  been  defeated.  Northern 
Alabama  was  so  loyal  to  the  Union  that  leaders 
there  proposed  separation  of  that  section  at  the  line 
of  the  mountains,  and  that  its  people  organize  and 
"fight  it  out"  in  the  foothills.  But  the  promptness 
with  which  the  Confederate  authorities  organized 
the  military  forces  discouraged  such  a  project.  The 
strong  resentment  of  the  summary  accomplishment 
of  secession  was  rendered  bitter  by  conscription 
laws.  Sections  of  the  mountains  in  which  drastic 
measures  were  necessary  to  enforce  those  laws  be- 


A  REPUBLICAN  BLUNDER  53 

came  easy  recruiting  grounds  for  the  federal  army. 
It  is  recorded  that  2,700  men  from  Walker,  Winston 
and  Fayette  counties  enlisted  in  one  federal  com 
mand.  North  Alabama  was  more  than  once  occupied 
by  contending  armies,  and  partisan  organizations 
embittered  the  contest. 

In  centra]  and  southern  Alabama  were  many 
Whigs  and  Union  men  who  had  no  liking  for  the 
Democratic  party. 

In  this  state  of  affairs,  convinced  that  not  many 
of  the  proud  Confederates  would  sue  for  relief 
from  fourteenth  amendment  disabilities,  and  that 
the  constitution  which  disqualified  thousands  of 
white  voters  would  perpetuate  negro  supremacy  in 
Alabama,  the  Republican  leaders  in  Congress  com 
mitted  a  wrong  which  to  this  day  bears  heavily  upon 
their  party. 


CHAPTER  NINE 

CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT 

The  negroes  had  exercised  without  hindrance  their 
new  privilege  of  the  suffrage.  Their  incapacity  as 
voters  was  illustrated  in  the  character  of  the  men 
who  assumed  office  after  the  election  in  1868. 

In  Sumter  county,  Tobias  Lane  was  elected  pro 
bate  judge,  but  during  the  period  of  uncertainty 
when  the  constitution  was  in  abeyance,  concluding 
that  congressional  action  respecting  it  would  be 
unfavorable,  he  packed  his  carpetbag  and  returned 
to  Ohio,  having  been  one  of  the  migrants  from  that 
state,  so  prolific  of  birds  of  his  feather. 

Beville,  the  sheriff,  was  an  appointee  of  General 
Swayne.  He  was  unable  to  give  bond,  but  Swayne 
waived  that  formality  and  ordered  him  to  continue 
in  office  without  bond.  In  1868  Richard  Harris,  a 
negro,  who  could  neither  read  nor  write,  became 
his  worthy  successor. 

As  solicitor  the  discriminating  voters  chose  Ben 
Bardwell,  a  negro,  who  was  wholly  deficient  in  the 

54 


CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT  55 

knowledge  of  reading  and  writing,  a  deficiency 
which  made  him  "an  easy  mark"  for  one  of  the 
most  learned  bars  in  the  state. 

George  Houston,  a  freedman,  was  sent  to  the 
lower  house  of  the  legislature.  As  his  colleague 
Ben  Inge,  another  "person  of  color,"  absolutely 
illiterate,  was  selected. 

An  army  captain,  one  Yordy,  received  the  state 
senatorial  honors,  which  he  wore  while  serving 
Uncle  Sam  in  the  custom  house  at  Mobile.  He  was 
a  long-distance  representative,  having  no  domicile 
in  Sumter,  nor  ever  making  his  appearance  there. 

John  B.  Cecil,  reputed  federal  army  sutler  and 
coming  with  the  influx  from  fecund  Ohio,  was 
elected  treasurer.  He  gradually  and  logically  de 
generated  into  a  partnership  with  a  negro  in  a  grog 
shop  enterprise. 

Badger,  another  bird  of  passage,  became  tax 
assessor.  The  revenue  and  road  commission  was  a 
motley  aggregation  which  comprised  one  carpet 
bagger  and  three  negroes. 

Edward  Herndon,  a  native  Union  man,  by  grace 
of  appointment  and  election,  simultaneously  devoted 
his  talents  to  the  offices  of  circuit  clerk,  register  in 
chancery,  notary  public,  justice  of  the  peace,  keeper 
of  the  poorhouse  and  guardian  ad  litem, — and  per- 


56  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

haps  felt  aggrieved  that  he  didn't  have  "all  that  was 
coming  to  him." 

It  would  seem  that,  with  this  multiplicity  of  trusts, 
Mr.  Herndon  monopolized  the  privilege  of  plurality 
in  office  holding;  but  not  so,  for  Mr.  Daniel  Price, 
a  typical  scalawag,  with  the  reputation  of  a  jailbird 
and  desperado,  made  flight  from  Wetumpka  to 
Sumter,  and  was  endowed  with  a  bunch  of  federal 
and  county  jobs, — register  of  voters,  superintendent 
of  education,  postmaster  and  census  taker.  Insa 
tiable,  like  Oliver  Twist  he  wanted  more,  and  as  a 
side  line  to  his  multifarious  activities,  employed  his 
scholarly  attainments  in  the  conduct  of  a  negro 
school,  meanwhile  boarding  and  associating  with 
negroes. 

The  harmony  of  the  "color  scheme"  of  the  official 
colony  in  Perry  county,  adjoining  Hale  county,  was 
never  broken  by  a  trace  of  the  ebony  hue. 

Without  exception,  all  of  the  county  offices  were 
held  by  carpetbaggers,  officers  of  the  8th  Wisconsin 
regiment,  originally  sent  on  garrison  duty.  Their 
characters  are  illustrated  by  the  fact  that,  under  the 
guise  of  selling  properties  which  they  had  acquired 
in  the  county,  all  of  them  sold  their  offices  in  the 
time  of  political  regeneration  and  betook  themselves 
to  the  north.  During  Lindsay's  administration  the 
sheriff,  charged  with  conniving  at  the  escape  from 


CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT  S7. 

jail  of  a  prisoner  incarcerated  for  murder,  sold  his 
job  for  $1,500.  Democrats  succeeded  the  aliens. 

In  Marengo  county  there  were  more  places  than 
"loyal  and  reconstructed"  place-seekers,  and  conse 
quently  Charles  L.  Drake,  who  made  his  advent  in 
1866  as  an  army  captain,  was  burdened  with  the 
cares  and  responsibilities  of  register  in  chancery, 
circuit  clerk,  United  States  commissioner  and  agent 
of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau;  yet  had  time  for  political 
activity  which  made  him  especially  obnoxious. 

Another  conspicuous  character  in  Marengo  was 
one  Burton,  a  carpetbagger,  who  established  in  De- 
mopolis  a  weekly  newspaper,  The  Southern  Repub 
lican.  He  had  incorporated  in  the  oppressive  tax 
laws  a  provision  that  where  a  deed  was  made  to  a 
purchaser  at  a  tax  sale,  it  should  be  made  conclusive 
evidence,  whether  the  sale  was  legal  or  illegal,  that 
all  requisites  to  a  valid  sale  had  been  complied  with. 
In  order  to  increase  the  advertising,  a  section  of  land 
was  divided  into  sixteen  parts  and  each  part  adver 
tised  separately.  Legal  advertising  was  confined  to 
"loyal"  papers,  the  test  of  loyalty  being  allegiance 
to  the  Radical  party.  The  Southern  Republican, 
being  the  only  loyal  paper  in  all  that  unreconstructed 
region,  was  designated  as  the  official  organ  of  Ma 
rengo,  Greene,  Perry  and  Choctaw  counties. 


58  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

The  newspaper  statute  referred  to  was  in  these 
words : 

"That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  probate  judge  in 
each  county  of  this  state  to  designate  a  newspaper  in 
which  all  local  advertisements,  notices,  or  publica 
tions  of  any  and  every  character  required  by  law  to 
be  made  in  his  county  shall  be  published.  Provided, 
that  no  newspaper  shall  be  designated  as  such  official 
organ  which  does  not  in  its  columns  sustain  and 
advocate  the  maintenance  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  government  of  the  state  of 
Alabama,  which  is  recognized  by  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  as  the  legal  government  of  this 
state;  and  if  there  be  no  such  paper  published  in 
the  county,  then  the  probate  judge,  whose  decision 
upon  the  question  shall  be  final,  shall  designate  the 
paper  published  nearest  the  county  seat  of  his  county 
which  does  sustain  said  government." 

The  "loyal"  papers  so  designated  had  no  circula 
tion  beyond  a  small  free  distribution  among  office 
holders.  Few  of  the  negroes  in  their  general  illite 
racy  could  read  them,  and  none  of  them  were  con 
cerned  in  the  advertisements.  The  white  people,  to 
whom  all  of  the  advertisements  were  addressed, 
would  not  permit  a  copy  of  the  publications  to  be 
sent  to  them.  Consequently,  the  payment  of  fees 
was  a  waste  of  public  money.  The  purpose  of  the 


CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT    -         59 

law  was  to  create  and  sustain  a  detestable  press  at 
the  expense  of  the  taxpayers,  or  seduce  the  existing 
papers. 

In  1870  Burton  was  nominee  for  lieutenant-gov 
ernor.  On  account  of  some  personally  offensive  pub- 
lication,  Mr.  E.  C.  Meredith,  of  Eutaw,  a  Demo 
cratic  leader  ("Bravest  of  the  Brave"),  severely 
chastised  him  in  Eutaw.  Thereafter  the  "trooly  loil" 
journalist  made  his  periodical  collections  of  fees  in 
Greene  county  by  proxy.  About  the  time  when 
frost  touched  with  withering  chill  his  budding  poli 
tical  aspiration,  Burton  received  an  ominous  com 
munication,  not  intended  for  publication,  but  for 
his  own  guidance.  It  was  embellished  with  pictures 
of  cross-bones,  skull  and  dagger,  and  inscribed  with 
a  legend  which  he  interpreted  as  a  sort  of  "move  on" 
ordinance.  And  he  stood  not  on  the  order  of  his 
going,  but  hiked. 

General  Dustin,  a  northern  soldier,  of  good 
family  connections,  who  settled  in  Demopolis  and 
allied  himself  by  marriage  with  one  of  the  old  and 
prominent  families  of  the  town,  was  appointed 
major  general  of  militia,  and  endeavored,  but  un 
successfully,  to  organize  a  force.  The  law  provided 
that  whenever  forty  or  more  men  should  enroll  them 
selves  and  choose  officers,  the  governor  upon  appli 
cation  should  recognize  them  as  a  volunteer  com- 


60  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

pany.  Governor  Smith  could  not  be  persuaded  to 
encourage  the  formation  of  a  militia  force ;  he  pre 
ferred  federal  regulars,  and  they  were  always 
available. 

While  awaiting  opportunity  for  employment  of 
his  warrior  genius  and  acquirements,  General 
Dustin,  equally  soldier  and  statesman,  served  the 
people  of  his  adopted  county  in  the  legislature.  His 
colleague  in  that  august  assembly  of  solons  was 
Levi  Wells,  a  "ward  of  the  nation." 

Others  who  made  reconstruction  history  in  Ma- 
rengo  county  will  be  mentioned  incidentally  as  this 
narrative  progresses.  They  were  a  rare  lot,  and 
equally  with  the  others  worthy  of  a  place  on  the 
scroll  of  fame. 

Choctaw  county  officials  distinguished  themselves 
in  some  features  of  their  administration  of  affairs, 
according  to  testimony  before  a  government  com 
mission.  Dr.  Foster  was  appointed  probate  judge 
and  elected  state  senator,  and  served  in  the  dual 
capacity.  Receiving  the  appointment  of  revenue 
collector  at  Mobile,  he  discarded  the  probate  judge- 
ship,  to  which  Hill  was  appointed,  but  polygamously 
refused  to  be  divorced  from  the  other  love,  the  sena- 
torship.  Hill  had  been  appointed  treasurer  before 
receiving  the  appointment  to  the  judgeship.  With 
drawing  from  the  former  place,  his  brother,  Alex- 


CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT  61 

ander,  succeeded.  It  may  not  too  much  confuse  the 
already  complex  situation  to  mention  incidentally 
that  the  industrious  Alexander  filled  in  spare  time 
by  discharging  the  humble  duties  of  justice  of  the 
peace,  having  before  him  the  example  of  his  eminent 
brother,  who  scorned  not  the  lesser  duties  of  register 
in  chancery,  with  which  also  he  was  charged.  In 
the  progress  of  time,  an  inquisitive  grand  jury,  nos 
ing  into  matters,  ascertained  that  Treasurer  Aleck 
had  received  from  the  county  tax  collector  fees  to 
the  amount  of  $3,600.  While  the  jury  was  investi 
gating,  a  disturbance  occurred  on  the  streets;  the 
sheriff  resigned,  rather  than  interfere  with  the  dis 
turbers,  and  sought  pastoral  scenes.  Circuit  Judge 
J.  Q.  Smith,  serving  as  a  substitute  for  Luther  R. 
Smith,  adjourned  court  without  receiving  the  jury's 
report.  Immediately  after  adjournment  Probate 
Judge  Hill,  who  had  received  a  significant  communi 
cation,  with  skull  and  dagger  adornment,  and  maybe 
had  been  playfully  shot  at,  retired  to  his  farm,  leav 
ing  his  office  in  the  care  of  the  overburdened  but 
willing  Aleck.  The  circuit  clerk  accompanied  the 
probate  judge  to  his  sylvan  retreat,  and  imposed 
more  work  on  Aleck  by  making  him  custodian  of 
his  office  also.  By  the  way,  this  clerk  was  first 
elected,  but  failed  to  qualify,  whereupon  Judge 
Smith  cured  the  defect  by  appointing  him  to  the 


62  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

place.  Such  was  the  situation  of  affairs  when,  at 
midnight,  April  14,  the  structure  burned,  and,  ex 
cepting  documents  in  the  hands  of  the  jury,  all  of 
the  records  of  the  two  offices,  together  with  the 
treasurer's  account  of  moneys  received  and  dis 
bursed,  fed  the  hungry  flames.  The  treasurer  said 
that  all  the  funds  were  in  the  safe,  but  only  charred 
packages  of  Confederate  "shinplasters"  were  found 
therein  when  the  safe  was  opened.  The  succeeding 
treasurer,  an  expert  accountant,  under  instructions 
from  the  commissioners'  court,  investigated  accounts 
between  the  collector  and  former  treasurer,  and  re 
ported  that  the  latter  was  in  default  to  the  extent  of 
about  $7,000,  and  the  tax  collector  about  $2,700. 
Meanwhile,  the  tax  collector  had  sought  a  change  of 
air  in  "the  glorious  climate  of  California."  Before 
his  departure  he  related  a  tale  of  woe,  the  burden 
of  which  was  that  highwaymen  had  despoiled  him 
of  official  collections  of  between  $5,000  and  $6,000. 
The  fire  fiend  had  marked  Choctaw  officials  for 
its  victims.  According  to  his  own  statement,  the 
dwelling  of  the  county  superintendent  of  education 
was  the  repository  of  $4,000  of  county  funds  when 
said  "fiend"  consumed  it.  The  superintendent  was 
the  author  of  his  own  official  bond,  and  in  his  in 
experience  omitted  therefrom  the  customary  penalty 
clause,  which  omission  rendered  the  instrument  non- 


CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT  63 

enforceable.  Feeling  the  inadequacy  of  local  em 
ployment  for  his  talents,  he  took  up  residence  across 
the  line  in  Sumter  county,  and  thus  qualified  for 
election  to  the  legislature,  but  there  was  no  requisi 
tion  for  his  services. 

The  superintendent  was  law  partner  of  Joshua 
Morse,  attorney  general  of  the  state.  They  were 
jointly  indicted  for  the  murder  of  Editor  Thomas 
of  the  county  paper  at  Butler,  the  county  seat ;  they 
obtained  a  change  of  venue  and  were  tried  and 
acquitted  in  Mobile,  the  principal  witness  against 
them  having  disappeared. 

William  Miller,  a  former  slaveowner  and  one  of 
the  largest  landowners,  became  probate  judge  of 
Greene  county  in  1868.  Judge  Oliver,  the  incum 
bent,  refused  to  recognize  his  claim,  and  Miller  in 
voked  the  ever-responsive  military  powers ;  the  sol 
diers  forced  entrance  to  the  office  and  inducted  the 
claimant.  Oliver  filed  a  protest  and  retired.  Alex 
ander  Boyd,  a  nephew  of  Miller,  became  county 
solicitor  and  register  in  chancery. 

Judge  Luther  R.  Smith  had  a  brother,  Arthur  A., 
who  was  languishing  in  Massachusetts,  with  talents 
unemployed  and  maybe  unrecognized.  The  judge 
imported  his  brother  and  made  him  county  superin 
tendent  of  education.  There  were  not  many  white 
Republicans  in  Greene,  and  it  happened  that  the 


64  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

circuit  court  clerkship  was  "lying  around  loose," 
and  the  judge  thought  Arthur  was  the  man  for  the 
place.  The  latter  accepted  the  gift,  but  failed  to 
relinquish  the  superintendency  of  education.  One 
Yordy  figured  as  agent  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau. 

These  officials  were  unable  to  obtain  board  and 
lodging  at  either  of  the  taverns  or  elsewhere,  and 
jointly  established  and  maintained  for  some  time  a 
bachelor  establishment,  duly  ostracised  by  the  people 
of  the  town  and  county. 

Hale  county  had  a  complement  of  officials  in  keep 
ing  with  the  layout  common  to  the  counties  of  the 
district,  including  a  negro  legislator.  The  most 
troublesome  was  Dr.  Blackford,  probate  judge.  He 
had  served  as  a  delegate  to  the  constitutional  con 
vention  of  1867.  He  displaced  Judge  Hutchinson, 
a  popular  gentleman  who  had  lost  three  brothers  in 
one  of  the  battles  in  Virginia,  members  of  the 
famous  Greensboro  Guards. 

Blackford  was  a  skillful  physician  and  surgeon, 
and  of  fair  education.  He  served  as  surgeon  in  the 
Confederate  army,  and  was  stationed  at  Vicksburg 
during  the  siege.  Subsequently  a  story  circulated 
that  he  was  there  court-martialed  on  a  charge  of 
appropriating  to  his  own  use  hospital  stores,  includ 
ing  liquors.  However  that  may  be,  his  services 
were  dispensed  with  and  he  took  up  abode  in  Greens- 


CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT  65 

boro,  and  began  to  practice  his  profession  with  much 
success.  In  an  evil  hour  he  was  tempted  to  cast 
his  lot  with  the  adventurers  who  were  greedily  fas 
tening  their  clutches  upon  the  substance  of  the 
country,  and  fell.  Going  from  bad  to  worse,  he 
affiliated  with  negroes  and  soon  obtained  absolute 
control  of  them.  Claiming,  as  probate  judge,  that 
he  had  the  right  to  supervise  contracts  between  them 
and  their  employers,  he  constantly  meddled  in 
private  affairs.  Calling  league  meetings  and  taking 
the  hands  away  from  their  work,  he  caused  much 
vexation  and  loss  to  the  planters. 

About  the  time  when  he  became  probate  judge 
an  incident  occurred  in  Greensboro  in  which  was 
exhibited  by  the  soldiers  an  unusual  disapprobation 
of  the  administration  of  affairs.  The  agent  of  the 
Freedmen's  Bureau,  one  Clause,  incurred  the  dis 
pleasure  of  some  of  them  who  were  inclined  to  in 
subordination,  and  they  administered  to  him  a  beat 
ing.  Varying  the  proceeding,  they  seized  a  negro 
school  teacher  and  conveyed  him  to  a  pond,  in  which 
they  ducked  him  repeatedly. 

Blackford  became  alarmed  at  this  manifestation 
of  displeasure,  and  fled  to  the  hills  north  of  the 
town.  There  he  was  pursued  by  the  rioters  in  uni 
form,  and,  resuming  his  flight,  sought  refuge  at  the 
home  of  a  citizen,  who  apprised  leading  citizens  of 


66  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

Greensboro  of  his  whereabouts  and  peril.  They 
informed  the  military  commander,  who,  in  turn,  dis 
patched  a  squad  of  cavalry  to  rescue  him  and  con 
duct  him  to  town.  Blackford,  on  his  return,  re 
nounced  his  political  heresies  and  aspirations  to  the 
judgeship,  which  he  declared  he  would  not  accept; 
but,  recovering  his  confidence  in  the  stability  of  the 
military  powers  and  his  negro  backing,  he  quickly 
recanted  and  relapsed  into  arrogance. 

Tuscaloosa  county  was  not  neglected  by  place- 
hunters,  but  the  preponderance  of  whites  in  that 
county  was  a  restraining  influence. 

Luther  R.  Smith,  a  carpetbagger  from  Michigan, 
provisional  circuit  judge  in  1866,  was  elected  to 
that  position  in  1868,  and  simultaneously  a  member 
of  the  legislature,  but  had  decency  to  resign  the 
latter  trust.  Notwithstanding  he  subsequently  vio 
lated  the  judicial  proprieties  by  presiding  over  a 
radical  state  convention  in  Selma.  He  was  one  of 
the  most  respectable  of  the  intruders,  and  reputed  to 
be  just,  impartial  and  courteous  on  the  bench. 
Nevertheless  he  shared,  in  a  lesser  measure,  the 
odium  which  attached  to  all.  The  feeling  of  the 
people  was  that  no  right-minded  man  would  thrust 
himself  into  public  position  under  the  peculiar  cir 
cumstances. 

All  the  members  of  the  United  States  House  of 


CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT  67 

Representatives  from  Alabama  were  carpetbaggers 
— officers  in  the  United  States  army.  Charles  W. 
Pierce  represented  the  fourth  district.  He  held  a 
commission  as  major.  His  course  in  the  interval 
when  the  constitution  was  in  abeyance  was  the  same 
as  that  of  Colonel  Callis,  who  caused  more  dis 
cussion.  Colonel  Callis  was  elected  to  Congress 
from  the  Huntsville  district,  in  competition  with 
General  Joseph  W.  Burke,  a  man  of  character  and 
education.  General  Burke  was  the  Republican 
nominee,  and  Callis  bolted.  Callis  was  a  federal  sol 
dier  and  agent  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  at  Hunts 
ville.  While  canvassing,  he  was  attired  in  the  uni 
form  of  a  colonel.  When  the  constitution  was  re 
jected  and  declared  rejected  by  General  Meade,  and 
the  fact  communicated  to  General  Grant  and  by  him 
communicated  to  Congress,  and  the  action  of  Con 
gress  looked  to  the  rejection  of  the  constitution, 
Colonel  Callis  left  Huntsville  and  went  upon  duty 
to  Mississippi  as  an  army  officer.  When  Congress 
accepted  the  constitution  and  admitted  Alabama 
under  the  "omnibus"  measure,  Callis  hurried  to 
Washington  and  took  his  seat  as  a  representative 
from  Alabama,  notwithstanding  he  had  never  been 
a  citizen  of  the  state  and  was  then  a  resident  of 
Mississippi.  Pierce  was  succeeded  by  Charles  Hays, 
of  Greene  county,  in  November,  1869. 


68  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

The  state  was  represented  in  the  federal  Senate 
by  Willard  Warner  and  George  E.  Spencer,  the 
first  named  a  northern  general,  the  other,  an  army 
contractor.  Judge  Busteed,  under  oath,  said  that 
when  elected  Warner  was  not  a  citizen  of  Alabama; 
that  when  summoned  a  short  while  before  as  a 
juror  in  his  court,  Warner  claimed  exemption  on 
the  plea  that  he  was  a  senator  of  the  state  of  Ohio. 
Governor  William  H.  Smith,  in  a  letter  published  in 
the  Huntsville  Advocate,  said :  "Spencer  lives  upon 
the  passions  and  prejudices  of  the  races.  The  breath 
of  peace  would  leave  him  on  the  surface,  neglected 
and  despised."  And  Spencer  characterized  his  col 
league  as  a  "a  trifling  and  worthless  man." 

Being  unobjectionable  as  to  "loyalty,"  all  of  these 
non-citizens  were  permitted  to  take  their  seats;  and 
for  the  first  time  since  1861  Alabama  was  repre 
sented  (?)  in  the  federal  Congress,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  during  a  part  of  that  period  the  people 
were  taxed  by  the  government  which  denied  them 
representation — taxed  unconstitutionally  (in  the 
case  of  cotton),  as  the  Supreme  Court  subsequently 
decided. 

William  H.  Smith,  of  Randolph  county,  displaced 
Governor  Patton.  His  character  will  be  revealed 
as  these  pages  multiply. 

The  state  supreme  court  justices  were  evicted, 


CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT  69 

and  S.  W.  Peck,  Thomas  M.  Peters  and  B.  F.  Saf- 
fold  substituted  for  them.  There  is  little  to  be  said 
of  them  by  a  layman,  except  that  the  first  named 
favored  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
during  the  Ku  Klux  era,  and  the  last  named  declared 
unconstitutional  the  law  under  which  a  justice  of  the 
peace  was  convicted  of  solemnizing  the  rites  of 
matrimony  between  a  white  man  and  a  negro,  and 
reversed  the  judgment  of  the  lower  court. 

President  Lincoln  in  1863  appointed  Richard 
Busteed  United  States  district  judge,  and  in  1865 
the  appointee  came  to  the  state  and  assumed  the 
bench.  Whatever  else  may  be  said  of  him,  he  was 
bold  in  expression  of  opinion,  judicial  and  personal ; 
and  during  the  carpetbag  regime  he  testified  that 
"the  general  character  of  Alabama  office-holders  for 
intelligence  and  honesty  was  not  good."  In  1870 
Francis  S.  Lyon,  of  Demopolis,  testified  that  a  bill 
was  filed  in  Judge  Busteed's  court  to  foreclose  two 
mortgages  on  the  Alabama  Central  Railroad  (Selma 
to  Meridian),  and  the  cost  of  that  suit,  paid  by 
New  York  creditors  of  the  road,  amounted  to 
$122,000.  The  institution  presided  over  by  Judge 
Busteed  was  costly  to  litigants,  to  say  the  least. 

A.  J.  Applegate  became  lieutenant-governor.  Mr. 
William  M.  Lowe,  of  Huntsville,  testifying  before 
the  congressional  commission  in  1870,  said  of  him; 


70  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

"I  had  occasion  to  look  into  his  record,  and  pub 
lished  a  statement  in  reference  to  his  character,  in 
which  I  proved  conclusively  that  any  petit  jury  in 
any  New  England  state  would  have  convicted  him 
of  grand  larceny  upon  the  evidence  by  his  own 
declarations, — his  own  letters.  These  charges  were 
made  by  me  when  he  was  living.  Every  opportunity 
was  given  him  to  make  his  defense;  he  had  no  de 
fense  to  make  but  a  lie.  He  had  been  a  member 
of  McPherson's  body-guard  that  stopped  near  Mrs. 
Jacob  Thompson's  residence  in  Mississippi.  He 
was  there  taken  sick  and  taken  into  her  house  and 
nursed  and  kindly  treated  by  her.  At  that  time  and 
under  those  circumstances,  he,  or  some  one  with  his 
knowledge  and  connivance,  stole  the  deeds  and 
patents  and  valuable  papers  belonging  to  the  Thomp 
son  estate.  After  the  war  he  settled  here  and  wrote 
a  letter  to  Mrs.  Thompson.  In  his  first  letter  he 
thanked  her  for  her  kind  and  Christian  treatment 
of  him  while  he  was  sick,  although  he  was  an  enemy 
to  her  cause,  saying  that  he  would  ever  hold  it  in 
remembrance.  The  second  letter  called  to  her  mind 
the  fact  that  she  had  lost  those  valuable  papers,  and 
offered  to  return  them  or  have  them  returned  to 
her  for  a  consideration.  She  wrote  him  back.  The 
correspondence  was  published  in  full.  Finally,  he 
wrote  to  her  if  she  wanted  these  papers  better  than 


CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT  71 

she  wanted  $10,000,  to  send  him  on  the  money  and 
get  the  papers.  That  was  about  his  language, 
written  in  the  most  abominable  and  illiterate  style." 
The  matter  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  lawyers,  who 
induced  Applegate  with  $300  to  surrender  the 
papers. 

General  James  H.  Clanton,  under  oath,  spoke  thus 
of  Harrington,  speaker  of  the  house  of  representa 
tives  : 

"Mr.  Harrington  came  to  Mobile  very  poor,  from 
the  northeast  somewhere.  He  was  never  a  soldier 
that  we  knew  of.  He  is  now  very  rich.  Just  after 
the  war  he  was  charged  with  running  free  negroes 
into  Cuba.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  is  true  or  not. 
The  present  sheriff  of  Montgomery  county  showed 
me  a  reward  offered  for  him,  from  what  purported 
to  be  a  northwestern  paper,  on  a  charge  of  bank 
robbery.  He  requested  me  to  say  nothing  about  it 
lest  Harrington  should  get  away.  He  said  he  was 
going  for  him  that  night;  that  he  had  his  accom 
plice  in  jail,  and  the  accomplice  said  Harrington 
was  the  man.  The  description  he  showed  me  was 
lifelike." 

Asked  whether  it  could  not  be  a  mistake,  the 
general  replied: 

"No,  sir;  a  man  of  marked  physique.  I  did  not 
give  this  information  at  the  time  to  any  of  my  law 


72  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

partners,  but  they  smiled  when  I  told  them  that  Har 
rington  would  pay  more  reward  to  Barbour  (the 
sheriff)  and  we  would  never  hear  of  it  again.  And 
we  never  did  hear  of  it  till  we  published  it  in  the 
last  campaign,  to  which  Harrington,  who  still  lives 
there,  made  no  response  whatever.  Colonel  Thomas 
H.  Herndon,  a  prominent  lawyer  of  Mobile,  said  to 
me  that  a  friend  saw  Harrington,  during  the  last 
session  of  the  legislature  at  which  he  presided,  take 
a  crowd  off  to  drink  champagne  at  a  barroom  known 
as  the  Rialto,  in  Montgomery,  and  when  remon 
strated  with  for  his  extravagance,  he  ran  his  hand 
in  his  pocket  and  pulled  out  seventeen  one-hundred- 
dollar  bills,  with  the  remark  that  he  could  afford  it, 
as  he  had  made  that  much  in  one  day  in  engineering 
a  bill  through  the  house."  The  general  further  testi 
fied  that  Eugene  Beebe,  of  Montgomery,  told  him  he 
paid  Harrington  a  sum  of  money  to  advocate  a 
lottery  charter  before  the  house.  He  said  that  of 
the  representatives  whom  he  "approached"  on  the 
subject  of  the  lottery,  only  one,  a  negro,  exhibited 
any  qualms,  and  he  accepted  fifty  dollars,  protesting 
that  it  was  only  "as  a  loan." 

When  Colonel  Joseph  Hodgson  became  superin 
tendent  of  education,  he  said  that  county  superin 
tendents  had  embezzled  between  $50,000  and  $60,- 


CARPETBAG  GOVERNMENT  73 

ooo  of  school  funds.  Two  sons  of  the  former  state 
superintendent  were  fugitives  on  that  account. 

Mr.  P.  T.  Sayer,  speaking  of  the  Montgomery 
county  representatives  in  the  lower  house  of  the 
legislature,  said :  "One  of  them  is  a  man  who  came 
from  Austria,  by  the  name  of  Stroback.  I  under 
stood  that  he  was  a  sutler  or  something  of  that  kind 
in  the  federal  army.  I  further  understood  that  he 
never  has  been  naturalized;  I  do  not  know  about 
that.  He  was  said  to  be  a  gentleman  in  his  own  coun 
try;  I  do  not  know  about  that,  but  he  certainly  is 
not  one  in  Montgomery.  He  is  a  man  of  a  great 
deal  of  sense,  and  I  think  a  dangerous  man  in  any 
community  situated  as  ours  is.  The  others  are 
three  negroes." 

These  character  sketches  of  radical  officials  might 
be  multiplied  indefinitely,  but  the  monotony  would 
weary  the  reader.  Necessarily  others  will  be  men 
tioned  incidentally  as  this  story  of  reconstruction 
progresses. 


CHAPTER  TEN 

RUINOUS  MISGOVERNMENT 

Only  misrule  could  be  expected  from  such  offi 
cials.  Nothing  was  sacred  from  their  greedy  grasp. 
The  most  cherished  institutions  were  debased  to  their 
purposes.  In  time  the  university  was  avoided  by  all 
who  were  unwilling  to  forfeit  public  esteem.  One 
of  the  early  arrivals  from  fruitful  Ohio  was  Rev.  A. 
S.  Lakin.  He  was  commissioned  by  Bishop  Clark, 
of  the  Cincinnati  conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis 
copal  Church,  to  organize  negro  churches  in  Ala 
bama.  He  was  a  fanatic  of  the  extreme  type,  and 
his  work  of  the  politico-religious  character.  He  re 
garded  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  south,  as  an 
aggregation  of  rebels,  and  aimed  to  array  his  negro 
proselytes  against  it  by  preaching  political  sermons, 
in  which  he  reminded  his  audiences  of  their  former 
bondage  and  alleged  there  was  danger  of  its  renewal. 
According  to  his  own  statements,  he  was  the  unter- 
rified  victim  of  a  concatenation  of  Ku  Klux  attacks. 
In  prosecuting  his  roving  missions  in  the  mountains 
of  northern  Alabama,  Lakin's  morbid  fancy  dis- 

74 


RUINOUS  MISGOVERNMENT  75 

torted  every  lone  hunter  encountered  on  the  road 
side  into  a  lurking  assassin,  and  every  innocent  group 
of  gossiping  rustics  into  a  band  of  Ku  Klux.  He 
organized  a  camp-meeting,  and  one  night  at  an  early 
hour  during  its  progress  a  party  of  horsemen  rode 
through,  Lakin  wrote  for  publication  in  one  of  the 
church  organs  a  hair-raising  story  of  the  incident, 
magnifying  it  into  a  Ku  Klux  foray.  His  explana 
tion  of  the  cause  of  the  intrusion  was  that  the  klans- 
men  were  offended  because  of  a  rumor  circulating 
in  the  camp  that  an  infant  born  in  the  neighborhood 
was  "a  Ku  Klux  child,"  an  exact  image  in  miniature 
of  a  disguised  Ku  Klux,  horns  and  hood  included. 
Lakin  solemnly  affirmed  the  fact  of  the  birth  of  the 
monstrosity,  but  ungenerously  robbed  it  of  distinc 
tion  by  adding  that  six  other  infants  in  that  klan- 
infested  region  were  similarly  ''Ku  Klux  marked." 
The  woods  must  have  been  full  of  human  curios ! 

In  1868  the  regents  elected  this  superstitious  and 
prejudiced  emissary  president  of  the  University  of 
Alabama !  Accompanied  by  Dr.  N.  B.  Cloud,  state 
superintendent  of  education,  Lakin  journeyed  to 
Tuscaloosa  to  assume  the  station  which  the  people 
once  hoped  would  be  graced  by  the  illustrious  Henry 
Tutwiler.  Professor  Wyman  was  in  charge  of  the 
institution  and  held  the  keys;  the  former  president 
had  withdrawn  and  appointed  him  custodian.  On 


;6  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

the  ground  that  the  board  of  regents  was  illegally 
constituted,  Professor  Wyman  refused  to  yield  to 
Lakin,  and  the  latter,  discerning  signs  of  popular 
displeasure,  lost  the  courage  which  had  nerved  him 
to  assert  his  claim,  mounted  his  horse  and  hurriedly 
rode  away  in  the  direction  of  Huntsville,  while  Dr. 
Cloud  departed  with  equal  celerity  in  the  direction  of 
Montgomery. 

Some  time  afterward  Lakin  related  a  blood 
curdling  story  of  pursuit  from  Tuscaloosa  by  a 
band  of  Ku  Klux  and  his  almost  miraculous  escape 
from  the  horrible  death  to  which  the  band  had  con 
demned  him.  This  story  provoked  the  publication 
of  a  counter  charge, — that  while  Lakin  was  preach 
ing  somewhere  in  New  York  State  he  ill  requited 
the  hospitality  of  an  entertainer  by  dishonoring  the 
household. 

And  this  man's  ultimate  aspiration  was  to  repre 
sent  Alabama  in  the  United  States  Senate ! 

One  of  the  most  scandalous  chapters  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  Republican  regime  relates  to  railroad 
subsidies.  The  Lindsay  administration  favored  en 
couragement  to  the  building  of  railroads,  as  means 
for  development  of  natural  resources,  and  in  1867 
the  legislature  passed,  and  the  governor  approved, 
an  act  which  authorized  the  state  to  indorse  bonds 
of  new  railroads  to  the  extent  of  $12,000  per  mile, 


RUINOUS  MISGOVERNMENT  77 

with  an  additional  endorsement  for  bridges;  but 
indorsement  was  safeguarded  carefully,  and  no 
wrongs  were  committed  in  connection  with  the 
execution  of  the  law  until  the  Radicals  assumed 
control.  Then  there  began  a  riot  of  bribery  and 
corruption. 

November  10,  1871,  I.  F.  Grant,  state  treasurer, 
submitted  to  the  congressional  commission  investi 
gating  affairs  in  the  southern  states  a  statement  from 
which  the  following  extracts  are  made  : 

"Bonded  debt  of  the  state  January  n,  1861, 
$3,445,000. 

"The  state  is  and  was  bound  to  pay  in  perpetuity 
for  annual  interest  on  the  school  fund  the  sum  of 
$134,367.80. 

"Interest  unpaid  during  the  war,  accrued  up  to 
and  including  January  i,  1867,  was  then  funded  and 
new  bonds  issued  for  the  sum  of  $621,000,  which 
made  the  total  bonded  debt  on 

January  i,  1867 $4,066,000 

"The  war  debt,  amounting  to  $12,094,- 

731.95  was  repudiated. 

"Eight  per  cent,  bonds  sold  in  1867-68.  .  659,100 
"Eight  per  cent  bonds  sold  in  1869-70 .  .  657,700 
"Total  bonded  debt  January  i,  1871 ...  $5,382,800 


78  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

"Cause  of  increase,  sale  of  bonds  to  carry  on  the 
government. 

"There  is  a  prospective  liability  for  an  indefinite 
amount  growing  out  of  the  passage  of  an  act,  ap 
proved  February  19,  1867,  and  amended  August, 
1868,  whereby  the  state  is  required  to  indorse  rail 
road  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $12,000  per  mile,  which 
act  was  further  amended  in  March,  1870,  so  as  to  in 
crease  the  indorsement  to  $16,000  per  mile. 

"The  same  legislature  in  March,  1870,  made  a 
loan  to  the  Alabama  and  Chattanooga  Railroad 
Company  of  $2,000,000  in  Alabama  8%  bonds,  over 
and  above  the  indorsement  of  $16,000  per  mile  for 
the  entire  length  of  the  road,  thereby  adding  to  the 
direct  and  collateral  liability  of  the  state  for  this 
one  road  the  sum  of  $6,700,000.  In  addition  to 
this,  the  Republican  governor,  W.  IT.  Smith,  issued 
to  the  road  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $500,000  above 
what  the  road  could  ever  by  any  possibility  claim 
under  the  law. 

"The  said  road  made  default  in  payment  of  Jan 
uary  and  July,  1871,  interest,  which  the  state  paid 
as  its  owner  and  creditor,  $508,000. 

"There  are  eight  or  ten  other  roads  for  which  the 
state,  under  the  law  above  referred  to,  is  liable  as 
indorser." 


RUINOUS  MISGOVERNMENT  79 

The  state  auditor  reported  this  summary  of  lia 
bilities  September  30,  1871  : 

Direct  indebtedness $  8,761,967  37 

Present  conditional  indebtedness...    15,420,000  oo 
Conditional  indebtedness  provided  by 

law    14,200,000  oo 

Under  Democratic  administration,  a  committee 
of  the  legislature  investigated  the  railroad  deals  and 
reported  that  "Two  millions  of  state  bonds  which  the 
law  authorized  the  governor  to  issue  in  aid  of  said 
company  (Alabama  and  Chattanooga)  in  sums  suf 
ficient  to  pay  off  the  cost  of  having  constructed  a 
certain  amount  of  road  in  excess  of  the  state  indorse 
ment  of  $16,000  per  mile,  were  issued  in  bulk,  with 
reckless  haste,  and  were  hurried  away  to  the  money 
marts  of  Europe";  that  "there  has  been  no  record 
kept  by  any  officer  of  the  state  of  the  number  and 
amount  of  the  bonds  issued  or  indorsed  by  the  state 
in  favor  of  the  various  railroads  entitled  by  law  to 
the  aid  of  the  state,  except  as  to  loans  of  bonds  to 
the  Montgomery  and  Eufaula  Railroad  Company, 
$300,000  in  amount,  and  the  indorsement  of  bonds 
in  favor  of  the  Mobile  and  Montgomery  Railroad 
Company." 

R.  M.  Patton  testified  that  although  he  had  ac 
cepted  the  presidency  of  the  Alabama  and  Chatta- 


8o  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

nooga  Railroad  Company,  he  was  ignored  because 
he  opposed  the  loan  bill.  D.  N.  Stanton,  of  Boston, 
was  elected  president,  and  Patton  "was  not  invited 
or  expected  at  the  consultation  of  friends  of  the 
road.  He  said:  "I  do  not  think  the  stockholders 
ever  paid  in  any  of  the  capital  stock  of  the  com 
pany." 

Arthur  Bingham,  state  treasurer  from  1868  to 
1870,  asked  whether  he  knew  of  any  fraud  or 
illegality  in  connection  with  the  issue  or  indorsement 
of  the  railroad  bonds,  declined  to  answer  upon  the 
ground  that  by  so  doing  he  would  criminate  himself. 

Mr.  Holmes  testified  that  on  the  last  day  of  the 
session  of  the  legislature  of  1869-70  Mr.  Gilmer, 
president  of  the  North  and  South  Railroad,  bor 
rowed  from  him  and  Mr.  Farley  $25,000.  Next 
day  Mr.  Gilmer  complained  that  John  Hardy,  of 
Dallas  county,  chairman  of  the  committee  of  the 
legislature,  had  treated  him  shabbily;  that  "he  had 
agreed  to  pass  the  bill  for  him  for  $25,000,  but  that 
at  the  eleventh  hour  he  went  back  on  him  and  made 
him  pay  $10,000  more,  making  in  all  $35,000." 

Jere  Haralson,  colored,  Mr.  Hardy's  colleague 
from  Dallas,  was  a  shrewd  negro,  but  at  that  time 
a  cheap  commodity.  Later  he  appraised  himself 
more  highly.  Ben  Turner,  a  negro  (successor  to  the 
carpetbag  congressman),  continued  for  some  time 


RUINOUS  MISGOVERNMENT  81 

after  regeneration  to  represent  the  Dallas  district 
in  Congress,  and  Jere  spent  much  time  with  him  in 
Washington,  engaged  in  profitable  political  work. 
But  at  the  Montgomery  distribution  only  fifty 
dollars  was  apportioned  to  him.  He  ingenuously 
explained  that  he  accepted  it  as  a  loan. 

When  the  state,  some  years  later,  attempted  to 
make  Mr.  Hardy  disgorge  the  $35,000  (bonds)  and 
imprisoned  him,  he  escaped  on  the  plea  that  it  was 
imprisonment  for  debt. 

Ex-Governor  Patton  published  a  statement  in 
which  he  said  that,  when  in  Boston,  parties  to  the 
Alabama  and  Chattanooga  Railroad  complained  to 
him  because  legislation  in  Alabama  had  cost  the 
company  $200,000. 

J.  P.  Stowe,  a  Montgomery  county  representa 
tive,  asserted,  and  the  assertion  was  published,  that 
John  Hardy  took  away  the  night  the  legislature  ad 
journed  not  less  than  $150,000,  but  not  all  of  it  was 
his — he  had  much  of  it  for  distribution. 

Construction  of  the  Alabama  and  Chattanooga 
(now  the  Great  Southern)  Railroad,  extending  from 
Meridian  to  Chattanooga,  referred  to  in  the  report 
quoted  from,  was  under  direction  of  D.  N.  Stanton. 
He  was  a  skilled  and  unscrupulous  lobbyist  and  get- 
rich-quick  builder.  There  was  testimony  to  the 
effect  that  the  only  money  used  in  construction  work 


82  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

was  that  which  was  derived  from  state  indorsement. 
The  indorsement  for  bridges  was  $60.00  per  lineal 
foot  of  structure.  In  the  hill  country,  beginning  in 
Tuscaloosa  county,  the  line  of  road  described  a 
serpentine  trail  among  the  hills.  Mere  increase  of 
mileage  presented  no  great  disadvantage  to  Stanton, 
but  tunneling,  cutting  and  filling  were  difficulties 
studiously  avoided.  Consequently,  when  the  road 
passed  into  other  hands  and  reorganization  was 
effected,  changes  necessary  in  straightening  left  the 
landscape  with  marks  \of  peculiar  interest  to  civil 
engineers.  Travelers  'by  that  road  may  observe 
from  car  windows  at  many  points  abandoned  road 
beds  to  right  and  left,  winding  among  the  low 
places  and  avoiding  hills  which  were  so  formidable 
to  Stanton,  reminding  the  observer  of  meandering 
brooks  seeking  lower  levels.  Lines  of  least  resist 
ance  were  most  attractive  to  Stanton,  regardless  of 
circuitousness. 

While  government  was  thus  growing  in  costli 
ness,  the  resources  of  the  people  who  had  to  foot  the 
bills  were  diminishing. 

State  Treasurer  Grant's  statement  showed  that 
the  average  cost  of  state  government  in  Alabama 
for  1859  and  1860  was  $813,000;  for  1868,  1869, 
1870,  $1,514,000;  and  the  increase,  he  said,  was 


RUINOUS  MISGOVERNMENT  83 

partly  due  to  increase  of  bonded  debt,  but  mainly  to 
ignorant  and  corrupt  legislation. 

The  report  of  the  superintendent  of  census 
showed : 

Assessed  valuation  of  property  in  Ala 
bama,  including  slaves,  in  1860.  .$432,198,762 

Assessed  valuation  in  1870 156,770,387 

State  taxation  in  1860 530,107 

State  taxation  in  1870 1,477,414 

County  taxation  in  1860 309,474 

County  taxation  in  1870 1,122,471 

Now  consider,  as  representing  average  conditions 
in  the  counties  of  the  Black  Belt,  these  facts  derived 
from  the  report  of  Judge  Hill,  an  expert,  employed 
to  investigate  affairs  in  Marengo  county. 

Taxes  in  1870  were  threefold  greater  than  in 
1860.  The  value  of  subjects  of  taxation  had  dimin 
ished  two-thirds ;  22,000  slaves,  of  an  average  value 
of  $500  each,  had  ceased  to  be  enumerated  as  tax 
able  property;  lands  had  depreciated  in  value  sixty 
per  cent. ;  there  was  less  than  one-half  as  much  live 
stock  as  formerly;  two  townships  had  been  lopped 
off  and  given  to  the  newly-created  county  of  Hale. 


CHAPTER  ELEVEN 

THE    WHITES    AROUSED 

The  people  of  the  Black  Belt  had  borne  with  all 
possible  patience  the  multiplied  grievous  wrongs 
recited  in  the  foregoing  pages.  During  the  transi 
tion  from  master  and  slave  to  the  new  relations  be 
tween  them  there  was  a  strong  disposition  in  both 
races  to  live  in  peace  and  harmony  and  make  the 
best  of  their  altered  relations;  the  negroes  were 
civil  and  confiding,  scarcely  realizing  the  change 
in  their  status,  while  the  whites  appreciated  their 
good  behavior  during  the  war,  when  families  of 
men  in  the  army  were  unprotected,  and  were  dis 
posed  to  gratitude  for  it.  But  since  the  establish 
ment  of  the  league  friendly  intercourse  between  the 
races  had  been  growing  rarer,  and  now  ceased  al 
together:  the  estrangement  was  complete. 

With  the  imposition  of  the  constitution  began 
the  reign  of  the  carpetbagger — "demon  of  discord 
and  anarchy" — and  the  negro,  and  the  infliction  of 
"the  horrors  of  reconstruction";  a  civil  convulsion 
in  which  the  foundations  of  society  were  broken  up; 


THE  WHITES  AROUSED  85 

"a  vast  sluice, of  ignorance  and  vice  was  opened;  a 
race  which  never  had  evolved  anything  of  its  own 
motion  was  given  the  ballot,  the  highest  right  of 
American*  citizenship,"  and  never  regarded  it  as 
more  than  a  personal  perquisite,  while  white  men  of 
the  highest  type  were  disqualified  from  voting  by 
the  constitution  of  their  state;  negroes  were  made 
eligible  to  all  offices,  while  the  federal  Constitution 
deprived  the  people  of  the  wisdom,  knowledge  and 
experience  in  office  of  former  leaders  at  a  time 
when  they  were  most  needed.  A  comment  of  the 
time  was,  that  a  proscribed  white  man  could  not 
have  been  bailiff  to  his  former  slave  if  that  former 
slave  was  a  justice  of  the  peace,  as  he  might  well 
have  been,  if  he  was  not  in  fact.  Democrats  had 
not  opposed  negro  suffrage  in  order  to  oppress  the 
negroes,  but  to  prevent  negroes  from  crushing  them ; 
and  the  situation  produced  by  the  imposition  of  the 
constitution  attested  the  reasonableness  of  their  fear 
of  the  effect  of  the  endowment  of  the  negro  with 
the  ballot.  They  realized  that  "in  popular  govern 
ment  where  two  races  exist  in  mass  who  are  from 
any  cause  so  different  that  they  cannot  mingle  in 
marriage  and  become  one,  the  exercise  of  political 
power  must  be  confined  to  one  or  the  other  of  those 
races  if  there  be  a  wish  for  security  and  peace." 
In  the  fourth  district,  the  whites  were  greatly  out- 


86  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

numbered  by  the  blacks,  and,  comparing  voting 
strength,  a  contest  with  them  at  the  polls  seemed 
hopeless. 

The  census  of  1870  credited  Choctaw  county  with 
5,802  whites  and  6,872  blacks;  Greene  county,  3,858 
whites  and  14,541  blacks;  Hale  county,  4,802  whites 
and  16,990  blacks;  Marengo  county,  6,090  whites 
and  20,058  blacks ;  Sumter  county,  5,202  whites  and 
18,907  blacks;  Tuscaloosa  county,  10,229  whites 
and  8,294  blacks. 

Thus,  excepting  the  first-  and  last-named  counties, 
the  whites  were  outnumbered  by  more  than  three  to 
one. 

All  of  the  towns  in  the  section  under  review  were 
small,  the  populations  ranging  from  1,500  to  2,000. 
Greensboro  in  Hale,  Eutaw  in  Greene,  Demopolis 
in  Marengo,  Butler  in  Choctaw,  Livingston  in 
Sumter,  and  Tuscaloosa  in  the  county  of  the  same 
name,  were  the  seats  of  government  of  their  respec 
tive  counties,  centers  of  religion,  education  and 
sociability.  At  Tuscaloosa  were  located  the  State 
University  and  a  fine  girls'  school ;  in  Marion  were 
the  Seminary,  the  Institute,  Juclson,  and  Howard 
College;  in  Greensboro,  the  Methodist  Southern 
University  and  an  advanced  girls'  school  These 
towns  had  been  founded  as  the  home  places  of 
wealthy  and  cultured  planter  families  whose  planta- 


THE  WHITES  AROUSED  87 

tions  were  in  the  fertile  prairies  and  canebrakes. 
Office-holding  had  always  been  their  honorable  dis 
tinction,  gained  by  highest  merit. 

An  epitome  of  conditions  in  the  southern  states 
at  that  period  will  serve  to  portray  those  in  Ala 
bama  :  "Legislatures  in  some  instances  composed 
in  part  of  pardoned  felons  and  penitentiary  convicts 
enacting  laws;  the  judiciary  in  the  hands  of  charla 
tans  and  bribe-takers ;  every  office,  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest,  filled  with  ignorance,  vice  and  un 
blushing  corruption;  with  thejand  swarming  with 
libelers  and  malignant  ^landereja;  the  country 
divided  into  military  districts  and  garrisoned  with 
troops,  whose  officers  were  ever  ready,  at  the  slight 
est  bidding,  to  annoy  and  oppress  an  unarmed 
people." 

But  the  whites  realized  that  in  this  section,  at 
least,  civilization  itself  was  at  stake,  and  notwith 
standing  the  adverse  odds  and  other  disadvantages, 
resolved  to  risk  all  in  combat  with  the  forces  arrayed 
against  them.  They  were  acquainted  with  the  char 
acter  of  the  Union  League;  aware  of  its  horrible 
objects  and  aims ;  the  almost  daily  crimes  of  lustful 
fiends^  assassins  and  incendiaries  were  regarded  as 
the  fruits  of  its  teachings ;  its  responsibility  for  the 
existence  of  courts  of  law  void  of  decency  and 
recognized  authority,  and  for  officials  incapable  of 


88  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

enforcing  law  and  order,  for  injury  to  public  credit 
by  prodigal  pledges,  and  waste  of  public  money,  was 
fixed  by  its  foolish  and  persistent  allegiance  to  false 
leaders.  This  league  was  the  institution  marked  for 
destruction.  An  organization  pledged  to  undertake 
the  task  relentlessly  and  unflinchingly  was  regarded 
as  a  necessity.  As  the  mighty  Anglo-Saxon  race  on 
this  continent  had  ever  proved  equal  to  emergencies, 
so  now  the  men  of  this  race,  war-trained  in  arms  and 
horsemanship,  sensible  that  the  great  stake  of  Chris 
tianity  and  civilization  lay  in  the  balance,  nerved 
themselves  for  the  conflict. 

The  rule  of  the  carpetbagger  and  scalawag ..,and 
freedman  was  a  "reign  of  terror,"  and  thrilling  as 
^vell  as  deplorable  were  the  incidents  of  the  struggle 
to  throw  off  the  yoke.  The  mere  recital  of  them, 
without  comment,  would  fill  volumes.  Only  those 
regarded  as  culminating  events  in  the  several  coun 
ties  of  the  district  will  be  related.  And  in  the  rela 
tion  sworn  testimony  of  the  time  supports  the 
writer's  statements  where  personal  observation  was 
lacking.  They  illustrate  the  sacrifices  of  the  devoted 
men  who  were  impelled  to  deeds  distasteful  but  re 
garded  as  a  necessary  choice  of  evils,  and  who 
rescued  that  garden  spot  of  the  state  from  savage 
domination  and  again  made  it  fit  abiding  place  for 
the  race  which  before  had  dispossessed  the  abori- 


THE  WHITES  AROUSED  89 

gines.  These. men  knew  that  the  negroes  were  mis 
guided  dupes  of  designing  and  ruthless  leaders,  and 
pitied  them,  but  for  the  ultimate  good  of  both  races 
sternly  resolved  that  they  should  be  compelled  to 
discard  those  leaders  and  submit  to  the  legitimate 
rulers  of  the  land. 


CHAPTER  TWELVE 

THE  KU  KLUX  KLAN 

Before  proceeding  with  the  narrative,  an  explana 
tion  of  the  origin  and  purposes  of  the  Ku  Klux  Klan 
may  interest  the  reader.  The  facts  mentioned  were 
derived  from  authentic  and  official  sources. 

The  first  den  was  organized  in  Pulaski,  Giles 
county,  Tennessee,  in  1866,  and  Pulaski  continued 
to  be  the  centre  of  the  order  throughout  its  existence 
as  an  interstate  organization.  Six  men  organized 
the  den  for  diversion  and  amusement  in  a  com- 
munity  where  life  was  dull  and  monotonous.  The 
original  name  was  Ku  Kloi  (from  the  Greek  word 
Ku  Klos),  meaning  band  or  circle.  It  was  changed 
to  Ku  Klux  and  Klan  was  added. 

The  constitution  of  Tennessee  was  imposed  by 
a  fraction  of  the  people.  The  legislature  passed  an 
act  restricting  suffrage  which  disfranchised  three- 
fourths  of  the  native  population  of  the  middle  and 
western  parts  of  the  state.  This  obsequious  legisla 
ture  also  passed  acts  ratifying  the  illegal  edicts  of 
the  autocratic  and  tyrannical  Governor  Brownlow 

90 


THE  KU  KLUX  KLAN  91 

("The  Parson")  ;  the  sedition  law  was  revived  and 
amplified ;  freedom  of  speech  and  press  was  over 
thrown,  and  a  large  militia  force  composed  of 
negroes  was  created  and  made  responsible  to  the  gov 
ernor  alone.  At  an  election  enough  men  had  been 
permittdi  to  register  to  thwart  Brownlow's  plans. 
He  threw  out  the  entire  vote  of  twenty-eight  coun 
ties.  Registrars  were  removed,  registration  set 
aside,  the  counties  placed  under  martial  law,  and 
negro  militia  quartered  therein.  The  legislature  had 
become  unanimously  Republican  in  both  branches. 

The  people  began  to  consider  means  of  counter 
acting  this  high-handed  tyranny.  (  The  Pulaski  Ku 
Klux  organization  had  attracted  much  attention  and 
branches  of  it  had  been  organized  in  many  parts  of 
the  state.  Leaders  of  the  people  quickly  saw  that  it 
could  be  utilized  for  the  purpose  in  view.  And  this 
was  done.  The  order,  thus  perverted,  soon  spread 
from  Virginia  to  Texas.  The  ritual  was  simple  and 
easily  memorized  and  was  never  printed;  but  a 
copy  of  the  prescript  was  obtained  and  used  in  a 
trial  in  Tennessee  and  reproduced  in  United  States 
government  publications.  At  a  meeting  in  Nash 
ville  of  delegates  from  all  dens  this  was  modified. 
That  convention  designated  the  southern  territory 
as  "The  Invisible  Empire."  It  was  subdivided  into 
"realms"  (corresponding  to  states)  ;  realms  were 


92  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

divided  into  "dominions"  (congressional  districts)  ; 
dominions  into  "provinces"  (counties)  ;  provinces 
into  "dens."  Officers  were  designated  as  follows: 
Grand  Wizard  of  Invisible  Empire  and  his  ten  Genii 
(and  the  grand  wizard's  powers  were  almost  auto 
cratic),  Grand  Dragon  of  Realm  and  hi%  Eight 
Hydras,  Grand  Titan  of  Dominion  and  his  Six 
Furies,  Grand  Cyclops  of  Den  and  his  Two  Night 
Hawks,  Grand  Monk,  Grand  Scribe,  Grand  Ex 
chequer,  Grand  Turk,  Grand  Sentinel,  The  Genii, 
Hydras,  Furies,  Gobbins  and  Night  Hawks  were 
staff  officers.  (It  is  said  that  the  gradation  and  dis 
tribution  of  authority  were  perfect,  and  that  no 
more  perfectly  organized  order  ever  existed  in  the 
world.J  The  costume  consisted  of  a  mask  with  open 
ings  for  the  nose  and  eyes ;  a  tall,  pointed  hat  of  stiff 
material ;  a  gown  or  robe  to  cover  the  entire  person. 
Each  member  was  provided  with  a  whistle,  and  with 
this,  and  by  means  of  a  code  of  signals,  communi 
cated  with  his  comrades.  They  used  a  cypher  to 
fix  dates,  etc.,  and  published  their  notices  in  the 
newspapers,  until  repressive  laws  forbade  this. 
Their  horses  were  robed  and  their  hoofs  muffled. 

Meanwhile,  other  orders  formed :  White  brother 
hood,  White  League,  Pale  Faces,  Constitutional 
Union  Guards  and  Knights  of  White  Camelia;  but 
all  evidence  shows  that  they  were  for  the  most  part 


THE  KU  KLUX  KLAN  93 

short-lived,  the  very  name  of  Ku  Klux  having 
caught  the  fancy  of  the  members.  General  Forrest 
is  credited  with  having  consolidated  all  of  them  into 
the  one  grand  order.  An  interview  with  General 
Forrest  was  published  in  the  Cincinnati  Commercial 
in  September,  1868,  in  which  he  was  quoted  as  say 
ing  that  in  Tennessee  the  klan  embraced  a  member 
ship  of  40,000,  and  in  all  the  states  550,000.  He 
said  to  the  congressional  commission  that  the  order 
was  disbanded  by  him  when  it  had  fulfilled  its  pur 
pose.  No  doubt  he  meant  that  the  general  organiza 
tion  was  disbanded,  for  certainly  detached  bodies 
existed  after  the  date  fixed  by  him  as  that  of  the 
disbandment.  Fleming  says  that  the  general  was 
initiated  by  Captain  John  W.  Morton,  formerly  his 
chief  of  artillery,  and  became  Grand  Wizard.  In 
his  testimony  General  Forrest  said  that  the  klan 
in  Tennessee  was  intended  as  a  defensive  organiza 
tion  to  offset  the  Union  League ;  to  protect  ex-Con 
federates  from  extermination  by  Brownlow's  militia ; 
to  prevent  the  burning  of  gins,  mills  and  residences. 
Congress  and  the  radical  legislatures  resorted  to 
all  possible  means  to  break  up  the  klans,  but  they 
existed  until  after  white  supremacy  was  restored. 
Even  then,  counterfeit  bodies  perverted  the  name 
until  they  were  suppressed  by  the  natural  rulers  of 
the  land.  Congress  passed  a  bill  which  provided  for 


94  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

suspension  of  civil  government  in  any  district  in 
which  Ku  Klux  lawlessness  existed,  thus  depriving 
all  the  people  of  trial  by  jury  and  other  rights,  and 
placing  whole  communities  under  the  ban  of  military 
power.  The  Alabama  legislative  enactment  pro 
nounced  anyone  found  in  disguise  a  felon  and  out 
law.  It  also  provided  that  if  a  person  was  whipped 
or  killed  by  men  in  disguise,  the  county  could  be 
sued  for  a  penalty  ranging  from  $1,000  to  $5,000; 
and  it  made  it  the  duty  of  the  prosecuting  attorney 
of  the  county  to  institute  suit  for  and  in  behalf  of 
the  victim  or  his  relatives,  in  any  case  where  no 
indictment  was  found. 

After  the  Nashville  convention  the  order  courted 
publicity,  in  order  to  inspire  respect  for  its  powers, 
and  the  Ku  Klux  sometimes  paraded  in  daylight. 
Their  appearance  in  public  was  sudden  and  un 
heralded  ;  and  they  disappeared  as  silently  and  mys 
teriously.  The  perfection  of  their  movements  in 
drill  revealed  Hie"  training  which  the  members  had 
received  as  cavalrymen  during  the  war.  Sometimes 
the  parades  were  at  night,  and  then  the  mystery  of 
their  sudden  appearance  and  the  weirdness  of  the 
spectacle  were  heightened.  One  of  the  night  parades 
was  in  Huntsville,  and  the  story  of  it  was  circulated 
throughout  the  north  as  evidence  that  another  revolu 
tion  was  imminent.  It  was  in  the  nature  of  an  ac- 


THE  KU  KLUX  KLAN  95 

ceptance  of  challenge,  and  the  circumstances  con 
nected  with  it  were  as  follows : 

On  October  30,  1868,  C.  C.  Sheets,  a  Grant  can 
didate  for  elector,  made  a  speech  in  Florence.  About 
ten  o'clock  that  night  a  band  of  disguised  men 
visited  his  sleeping  apartment.  He  attempted  to 
escape  by  way  of  a  gallery,  but  was  caught  and  taken 
back  to  his  room.  After  a  short  stay  the  band  re 
tired  without  having  in  any  way  harmed  him.  Sheets 
said  that  they  exacted  from  him  a  promise  that  he 
would  desist  from  making  inflammatory  speeches. 
Later  in  the  same  month  Sheets  delivered  a  speech 
in  Huntsville.  It  was  reported  that  in  the  course  of 
that  speech  he  told  his  colored  audience  that  he  had 
been  interfered  with  a  few  nights  before  in  Florence 
by  Ku  Klux,  and  that  he  had  promised  them  then 
that  he  would  not  make  the  abusive  and  inflamma 
tory  speeches  that  he  had  been  making;  but  up 
there,  where  there  were  so  many  colored  people,  he 
wasn't  afraid  to  say  what  he  pleased,  and  that  if 
the  colored  people  would  do  what  was  becoming  in 
them,  they  would  carry  with  them  weapons  and 
shoot  down  those  disguised  men  wherever  they 
found  them;  that  the  reason  the  Ku  Klux  paraded 
the  country  was  because  the  negroes  were  weak- 
kneed. 

The  speech  excited  the  negroes.     They  remained 


96  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

in  town  all  day,  and  at  night  a  meeting  was  held  in 
the  court-house  and  many  negroes,  with  guns,  at 
tended.  During  the  day  leading  negroes  loudly 
proclaimed  that  Ku  Klux  would  never  again  be  per 
mitted  to  enter  the  town ;  that  if  they  attempted  to  do 
so,  they  would  be  shot  on  sight.  A  federal  military 
officer  had  said  it  would  be  lawful  to  do  this.  A 
rumor  circulated  that  Ku  Klux  were  assembling  at 
a  point  some  miles  distant,  and  about  dark  two  large 
posses  of  negroes,  under  command  of  deputy 
sheriffs,  repaired  to  points  along  principal  roads  to 
intercept  them.  While  the  speaking  at  the  court 
house  was  in  progress,  fugitive  negroes  from  the 
posses,  which  had  suddenly  dissolved  at  the  ap 
proach  of  danger,  rushed  to  the  court-house  and  an 
nounced  that  Ku  Klux  were  marching  on  the  town. 
The  meeting  broke  up  in  confusion  and  the  people 
hurried  into  the  yard.  All  the  near-by  streets  and 
the  sidewalks  surrounding  the  square  were  thronged 
with  people,  white  and  black.  Suddenly  the  caval 
cade,  numbering  about  two  hundred,  fully  uni 
formed  in  tall  conical  hats,  long  gowns,  and  hoods 
with  eyeholes,  some  armed  with  guns  and  sabres, 
wheeled  into  the  square,  and  without  sound  save  the 
whistle  signals — then  almost  as  awe-inspiring  as 
had  been  the  "rebel  yell" — rode  in  military  order 
completely  around  the  court-house,  and  then  turned 


THE  KU  KLUX  KLAN  97 

into  one  of  the  streets.  Proceeding  along  this  some 
distance,  the  column  halted  and  formed  into  battle 
line.  After  maintaining  this  formation  for  a  few 
minutes,  the  march  was  resumed  and  the  band  dis 
appeared. 

There  was  stationed  in  Hunstville  at  that  time 
a  regiment  of  regular  troops,  and  their  commander, 
General  Cruger,  with  some  of  his  staff  officers,  from 
a  hotel  veranda  viewed  the  spectacle  of  the  Ku  Klux 
parade.  His  comment  was  that  "it  was  fine  but 
absurd." 

There  was  an  unfortunate  episode  of  the  event: 

Just  as  the  Ku  Klux  withdrew  there  was  a  dis 
charge  of  firearms  in  the  courtyard.  Some  witnesses 
said  that  the  first  discharge,  an  accidental  one,  due 
to  nervousness,  caused  the  others.  Judge  Thurlow, 
a  visitor,  was  mortally  wounded,  and  said  a  short 
while  before  his  death  that  he  was  shot  accidentally 
by  his  Republican  friends.  A  negro  seated  on  the 
court-house  steps  was  killed  instantly.  Two  white 
men  and  a  negro  were  wounded.  This  tragedy  was 
without  design,  and  the  excitement  was  quickly 
quieted. 

A  rumor  that  a  few  undisguised  Ku  Klux  were 
posted  about  the  square  was  supported  by  the  fact 
that  after  the  departure  of  the  troop  three  men, 
having  disguises  in  hand,  were  arrested  by  soldiers 


98  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

while  in  the  act  of  mounting  horses  in  one  of  the 
side  streets.  Later  in  the  night  they  were  rescued 
from  jail  by  their  comrades,  and  were  never  offi 
cially  identified.  But  their  paraphernalia  was  re 
tained  by  the  officials  and  often  exhibited  and  photo 
graphed.  Perhaps  none  other  was  ever  captured 
directly  from  a  wearer. 


CHAPTER  THIRTEEN 
A  MISCARRIAGE 

There  were  some  miscarriages  in  the  operations  of 
the  klan.  A  memorable  one  of  this  character  is 
recalled.  A  cavalcade,  supposed  to  have  started 
from  the  western  side  of  the  Warrior  river,  rode 
through  Greensboro  and  proceeded  to  Marion,  a 
distance  of  about  thirty-five  miles,  presumably  to 
take  from  jail  and  execute  a  negro  who  had,  with 
but  slight  provocation,  killed  a  white  man  with  a 
paling  which  he  wrenched  from  a  fence.  The  riders 
visited  the  jail  and  demanded  the  keys.  The  jailer's 
wife  appeared  and  implored  them  to  desist.  The 
jailer  himself,  a  member  of  a  fraternal  order,  made 
an  appeal  which  was  recognized  and  respected  by 
members  of  the  party  and  was  successful,  and  after 
much  parleying,  the  invaders  withdrew  without 
molesting  the  custodian  of  the  county  Bastile  or 
his  charge.  But  an  episode  of  the  foray  was  em 
barrassing  and  dangerous.  The  riders  had  pro 
ceeded  only  a  short  distance  when  one  of  the  horses 

99 


ioo          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

fell  and  expired,  in  full  mock  panoply.  Here  was 
an  awkward  situation  for  the  raiders.  A  comrade, 
far  away  from  home,  unhorsed  and  subjected  to  in 
evitable  detection  should  he  be  abandoned !  It  is  not 
known  by  what  means  he  escaped  and  regained  the 
realms  of  the  "Grand  Cyclops." 

The  warning  to  evil-disposed  persons  conveyed 
by  this  raid  perhaps  obviated  the  necessity  for  an 
other  in  that  particular  part  of  the  county. 

Across  the  border  line  of  Mississippi  occurred 
a  lamentable  disaster,  due  to  incompetent  leadership 
and  ignorance  of  locality. 

In  1870  the  carpetbag  government  in  Mississippi 
reached  the  zenith  of  its  power,  and  its  baleful 
influence  pervaded  every  nook  and  corner  of  the 
state.  The  effects  of  misgovernment  were  deplor 
able.  Lands  which  in  ante-bellum  days  were  ap 
praised  at  twenty-five  to  seventy-five  dollars  per  acre 
had  so  depreciated  in  value  that  at  forced  sales 
only  about  one  dollar  per  acre  could  be  obtained. 
There  were  few  real  estate  transfers;  some  of  the 
lands  were  depopulated;  the  only  immigrants  were 
carpetbaggers  seeking  offices;  taxation  was  oppres 
sive,  especially  for  the  support  of  schools,  and  al 
most  the  entire  burden  was  laid  upon  the  whites; 
the  scanty  possessions  of  negroes  were  within  the 
limits  of  exemption;  even  the  poll  tax,  devoted  to 


A  MISCARRIAGE  101 

school  purposes,  was  evaded  by  them.  In  some 
counties  tax-payers  bore  the  expense  of  schooling 
three  negro  pupils  to  one  white  pupil.  At  length 
they  resisted  collection  of  the  tax. 

Robert  W.  Flournoy,  of  Pontotoc,  distinguished 
himself  in  the  resultant  controversy.  When  not  en 
gaged  as  deputy  postmaster  and  county  superin 
tendent  of  education,  he  conducted  a  weekly  news 
paper,  and  made  it  and  himself  odious.  In  his  paper 
he  bitterly  denounced  the  Ku  Klux  as  "midnight 
prowlers  and  assassins,"  and  responsible  for  the 
suppression  of  public  schools.  He  insisted  that  in 
the  schools  there  should  be  no  separation  of  races, 
and  engaged  in  a  prolonged  and  heated  controversy 
with  the  governor  over  the  question  of  admitting 
negroes  to  the  State  University. 

Colonel  Flournoy  received  from  the  Grand 
Cyclops  a  communication,  intimating  that  at  an  early 
date  he  would  receive  a  visit  from  the  men  whom 
he  had  denounced.  About  midnight,  May  13,  1871, 
Flournoy's  office  foreman  and  a  companion  aroused 
him  from  sleep  with  the  startling  announcement  that 
a  band  of  Ku  Klux  had  appeared  in  the  village,  and 
the  leader  was  inquiring  where  the  colonel's  resi 
dence  was  located.  He  had  some  shotguns,  and, 
arming  himself  and  his  callers,  departed  from  home 
and  repaired  to  a  blacksmith  shop  near  by.  At  this 


102          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

place  a  number  of  townsmen,  well  armed,  had  al 
ready  assembled.  The  colonel  subsequently  ac 
counted  for  their  presence  with  arms  with  the  state 
ment  that  during  the  afternoon  they  had  been  hunt 
ing,  and  when  the  foreman  had  alarmed  them  they 
were  engaged  in  a  game  of  cards.  Altogether,  these 
men  constituted  a  strong  force,  and  proceeded  to 
arrange  an  ambuscade  at  the  shop. 

Meanwhile  the  Ku  Klux,  who,  according  to  later 
revelations,  were  strangers,  wholly  unacquainted 
with  the  locality,  having  learned  the  situation  of  the 
Flournoy  residence,  were  approaching  it,  uncon 
scious  of  the  state  of  affairs.  Fronting  the  place 
and  extending  a  long  distance  were  deep  and  tortu 
ous  gulleys,  and  in  their  progress  the  horsemen  be 
came  entangled  and  bewildered  as  in  a  maze  and 
their  formation  broken.  Extricating  themselves  in 
groups  and  singly,  they  approached  the  shop.  Chan 
cellor  Pollard  and  Deputy  Sheriff  Todd  were  with 
the  concealed  villagers,  and  the  former  emerged 
from  the  rear  of  the  shop  and  commanded  the  riders 
to  surrender.  Simultaneously,  someone  in  conceal 
ment  fired  a  shot,  and  instantly  the  ambushers 
sprang  from  cover  and  discharged  a  volley  in  the 
direction  of  the  disordered  klansmen.  The  surprise 
was  complete  and  overwhelming.  Horses,  becoming 
unruly,  frantically  turned  and  fled.  The  riders  in 


A  MISCARRIAGE  103 

advance  were  thus  thrown  back  upon  those  emerging 
from  the  gulleys.  In  the  resultant  confusion  there 
was  desultory  firing  back  and  forth,  but  the  un 
fortunate  strangers  were  unable  to  rally  at  any 
point,  and  singly  and  in  small  groups  they  with 
drew  to  the  main  street,  where  they  found  them 
selves  in  little  less  embarrassing  a  situation.  No 
one  knew  in  what  direction  they  should  retreat. 
They  had  lost  their  bearings  and  knew  not  how  to 
reach  the  road  over  which  they  had  entered  the 
village.  Disbanded,  they  fled  in  different  directions. 

Colonel  Flournoy's  supporters,  for  the  most  part, 
were  ignorant  of  the  character  of  the  men  whom 
they  had  assaulted  and  the  object  of  the  foray,  and 
were  easily  led  into  the  mistake  of  pressing  the  ad 
vantage  they  had  gained.  Consequently,  led  by 
Flournoy,  they  intercepted  a  small  body  of  the 
raiders  and  fired  on  them. 

Stampeded  as  they  were,  the  resolute  riders  halted 
and  returned  the  fire. 

After  daybreak  a  man,  fully  costumed  and  still 
in  mask,  badly  shot,  was  found  at  the  place  where 
he  and  his  comrades  had  been  waylaid.  The  unfor 
tunate  was  tenderly  cared  for,  but  expired  a  few 
hours  later.  Three  others  were  wounded,  but  es 
caped.  Sixteen  horses,  abandoned  by  their  riders, 
together  with  the  disguises  of  those  riders,  were 


io4          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

picked  up  next  day.     The  original  party  comprised 
thirty  men. 

There  was  profound  sorrow  in  the  little  town 
when  the  inhabitants  learned  what  an  awful  mistake 
had  been  made. 


CHAPTER  FOURTEEN 
A  CONVENTION  SUPPLEMENTS  Ku  KLUX 

Throughout  the  reconstruction  period  there  was 
perhaps  more  turbulence  in  Choctaw  than  in  any 
other  county  of  the  district,  but,  after  all,  the  climax 
in  the  struggle  for  restoration  of  white  supremacy 
was  in  an  orderly  and  regularly-organized  meeting  of 
citizens,  without  any  attempt  at  secrecy  of  pro 
ceedings. 

Judge  J.  Q.  Smith,  as  substitute  for  Judge  Luther 
R.  Smith,  as  previously  chronicled,  undertook  to 
hold  the  regular  term  of  the  circuit  court  at  Butler. 
The  sheriff  attempted  to  arrest  a  boisterous  man 
outside  the  court-house  and  met  defiance  and  resist 
ance  ;  consequently,  in  alarm  he  resigned,  and  the 
judge,  after  some  deliberation,  concluded  he  could 
not  proceed  without  a  sheriff  and  returned  to  his 
own  proper  jurisdiction.  The  people  in  attendance 
and  the  residents  of  Butler  held  a  meeting  and 
adopted  a  resolution  requesting  resignations  from 
all  public  officials.  More  cautious  men  dissuaded 
the  leaders  from  promulgating  the  resolution,  and 

IDS 


io6          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

a  movement  started  to  have  meetings  in  all  the 
precincts  and  delegates  to  a  county  meeting  chosen. 
This  project  was  successfully  accomplished,  and  the 
county  meeting  adopted  a  resolution  which  had  been 
adopted  at  a  meeting  in  Sumter  county.  But  in  the 
interval  between  the  impromptu  gathering  and  the 
regularly-organized  county  meeting  most  of  the  offi 
cials  had  taken  time  by  the  forelock  and  anticipated 
the  request  that  they  vacate  the  offices.  The  resolu 
tion  adopted  declared  devotion  to  law  and  order  and 
opposition  to  any  violation  thereof,  but  recited  the 
fact  that  the  objectionable  officials  held  office,  not  by 
choice  of  the  people,  but  contrary  to  their  will ;  that 
the  officers  had  demonstrated  their  incapacity  to  en 
force  the  laws,  and,  therefore,  in  the  interest  of  the 
public  they  should  resign. 


CHAPTER  FIFTEEN 
FOILED  THE  Ku  KLUX 

Throughout  the  reconstruction  period  there  was 
less  lawlessness  in  Hale  than  in  the  counties  adjoin 
ing,  and  overthrow  of  the  radical  administration  was 
effected  without  bloodshed. 

January  19,  1871,  in  the  wee  sma'  hours,  a  cyclops 
and  his  retinue  of  seventy  unceremoniously  called  at 
Judge  Blackford's  apartments  to  pay  their  respects. 
The  call  was  intended  as  a  sort  of  "surprise  party" ; 
but  coming  events  had  cast  their  shadows  before, 
and  those  shadows  were  as  premonitions  of  an  early 
nocturnal  visit,  and  the  judge  was  "not  at  home." 
He  was  cautiously  domiciled  in  a  room  adjoining 
his  office,  in  another  part  of  town.  Here,  in  the 
embrace  of  Morpheus,  perhaps  reveling  in  dreams 
of  a  blessed  land  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Grand  Wizard,  he  was  aroused  with  the  cry  of  "Ku 
Klux !"  by  an  alert  negro,  who  had  hastened  from 
the  judge's  home  to  apprise  him  of  the  presence  there 
of  the  unwelcome  visitors.  The  alarm  was  not  pre 
mature,  for  the  horsemen  were  hotfooting  in  the 

io7 


io8          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

wake  of  the  negro  and  reached  the  office  almost 
as  soon  as  he.  The  judge  needed  no  repetition  of 
the  dreadful  tidings.  His  transition  from  Dream 
land  to  earth  was  instantaneous,  and  his  plunge  in 
dishabille  through  an  open  window  was  a  disappear 
ing  act  worthy  of  reproduction  on  a  dramatic  stage. 
The  weird  sound  of  a  whistle  close  at  hand  broke 
discordantly  into  the  sweet  concert  of  frogs,  katy 
dids  and  other  melodists  of  the  nights  and  accelerated 
the  speed  of  him  who  sought  asylum  and  ghostly 
solitude  in  the  boneyard  in  the  depths  of  the  forest. 

Recounting  the  thrilling  incidents  of  that  awful 
night,  and  his  sojourn  of  three  nights  in  the  grue 
some  refuge,  Dr.  Blackford,  expressed  bitter  resent 
ment  of  the  rude  treatment  to  which  his  glossy  tile, 
which  he  abandoned  in  vanishing  through  the 
window,  \vas  subjected  by  the  klansmen ;  they  placed 
it  on  the  end  of  a  staff  and  bore  it  as  a  sort  of 
mock  pennant  at  the  head  of  the  cavalcade.  Often 
trivial  incidents,  if  ridiculous  or  amusing,  eclipse 
those  that  are  grave.  It  was  so  in  the  Eutaw  riot, 
when  a  "plug  hat"  diverted  dangerous  men  from  an 
unlawful  purpose, — but  that  is  another  story,  and 
will  be  told  in  due  time. 

For  the  next  few  days,  Dr.  Blackford  camped  at 
night  and  returned  to  his  office  in  the  morning. 
According  to  his  own  statement,  a  prominent  Con- 


FOILED  THE  KU  KLUX  109 

federate  general  took  him  to  his  quarters  in  a  hotel 
and  promised  him  protection  temporarily.  One 
evening,  in  general  conversation,  the  subject  of  the 
Ku  Klux  was  broached,  and  the  host  imparted  to  his 
very  receptive  guest  much  information  thereon.  The 
klans  pervaded  the  country,  and  were  better  organ 
ized  than  the  Confederate  army  had  ever  been. 
There  was  no  escape  for  a  proscribed  man  if  he 
should  tarry  when  ordered  to  be  on  the  move ;  when 
they  dealt  with  a  man,  a  klan  from  some  other 
county  or  state  did  the  work,  and  all  residents  could 
be  seen  pursuing  their  accustomed  walks.  "You  are 
watched,"  he  said,  "day  and  night,  and  your  where 
abouts  cannot  long  be  concealed.  On  that  night 
when  the  Ku  Klux  were  after  you,  not  more  than 
one  or  two  persons  in  the  vicinity  had  knowledge 
of  their  coming." 

[There  were  at  that  time  in  Greensboro  two 
distinguished  Confederate  generals,  Forrest  and 
Rucker,  engaged  in  building  the  Selma  and  Memphis 
Railroad.] 

Judge  Black  ford  conferred  with  some  prominent 
citizens,  and  at  his  request  they  consented  to  pur 
chase  his  property  on  condition  that  he  resign  and 
betake  himself  to  other  parts.  After  prolonged 
negotiations,  the  arrangement  was  effected.  Gover 
nor  Lindsay  appointed  as  Blackford's  successor  to 


i  io          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

the  probate  judgeship  Mr.  James  M.  Hobson,  father 
of  Congressman  Richmond  P.  Hobson.  Dr.  Black- 
ford,  with  his  grievances,  repaired  to  Washington, 
where  an  emollient  in  the  form  of  a  special  agency  of« 
the  Postoffice  Department  diverted  his  thoughts 
from  the  enemies  he  had  left  behind. 

The  details  of  Dr.  Blackford's  statement  of  in 
formation  derived  from  the  Confederate  general 
should  be  taken  with  a  grain  of  salt,  because  his 
memory  was  not  accurate.  In  Washington  he  testi 
fied  in  regard  to  another  occurrence  in  Greensboro, 
and  General  Blair's  inquisitiveness  exposed  the  in-f 
firmity  referred  to. 

He  said  the  citizens  regarded  the  soldiers  "as  a 
set  of  niggers  and  offscourings  of  creation"  whom 
they  could  "buy  with  two  dollars  and  a  drink  of 
whisky,"  and  make  them  do  their  will.  Then  he 
related  that  "while  probate  judge"  there  was  an 
election  in  Greensboro,  and  soldiers  in  charge  at  the 
polls  got  drunk  and  changed  negroes'  votes.  He 
interfered,  and  one  of  them  asked :  "What  the  devil 
have  you  got  to  do  with  it?"  The  doctor  replied: 
"I  have  simply  this  much,  I  am  the  presiding  officer 
here  of  this  county;  I  propose  to  keep  the  peace 
and  enforce  my  rights  as  the  presiding  officer  of  the 
county,  and  I  will  deal  with  you  myself  if  you  do 
not  leave."  The  valiant  doctor  then  drew  a  pistol 


FOILED  THE  KU  KLUX  in 

and  said,  "If  you  do  not  leave  here  now,  I  will  shoot 
you."  Comrades  of  the  obstreperous  soldier  inter 
posed  and  bore  him  away,  leaving  the  doctor  in 
serene  enjoyment  of  his  rights  as  "presiding  officer 
of  the  county."  After  he  had  testified  further  at 
considerable  length,  Senator  Blair  suddenly  pro 
jected  himself  into  the  inquiry  with  the  question  : 

"On  what  occasion  was  it  you  drew  your  pistol 
upon  a  United  States  soldier  and  told  him  you 
would  shoot  him  if  he  would  not  desist?" 

"It  was  on  the  day  of  the  election." 

"What  election?" 

"For  the  constitution;  the  day  we  voted  on  the 
constitution,  I  think  that  was  the  day." 

"What  office  did  you  hold  then?"  ' 

"No,  sir ;  it  was  not  the  day  of  the  constitutional 
election;  it  was  the  day  on  which  the  election,  I 
think,  of  officers  took  place,  and  I  know  that  I  was 
— or  at  least  my  impression  is  that  I  was  probate 
judge  at  the  time ;  that  is  my  impression,  that  I  was 
probate  judge  at  the  time." 

"The  officers  were  elected  on  the  same  day  the 
constitution  was  voted  on.  So  you  could  not  have 
been  a  probate  judge  until  you  were  elected  and 
commissioned." 

"No,  sir;  my  impression  is,  that  it  was  after  I 
was  probate  judge  that  that  occurred.  I  think  I  told 


H2  WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

him  that  by  virtue  of  the  office  that  I  held,  if  he  did 
not  desist  from  this — I  know  that  was  my  assertion 
to  the  soldier." 

"Was  that  a  proper  act  for  an  officer,  a  conserva 
tor  of  the  peace?" 

"I  do  not  know  that  it  was,  but  the  acts  of  violence 
going  on,  I  thought,  demanded  it,  and  the  sheriff  of 
the  county  had  left, — and  left  these  soldiers  there  to 
do  just  what  they  pleased,  and  they  were  drunk ;  and 
when  I  asked  them  several  times  to  desist  from  this 
thing,  and  this  fellow  clapped  his  hand  on  his  pistol, 
— and  I  had  a  large  derringer  in  my  pocket,  and  I 
told  him  he  should  do  it." 

"You  drew  your  pistol  on  him?" 

"Yes,  sir;  I  drew  my  pistol." 

"Was  it  your  duty  to  arrest  him?" 

"Perhaps  it  might  have  been,  sir.  I  did  not  think 
so ;  in  the  midst  of  that  excitement,  I  did  not  think 
so,  sir." 

"If  a  peace  officer  set  such  examples,  they  cannot 
complain  that  they  are  followed  by  others." 

"Yes,  sir;  that  may  be  all  true,  but  the  peace 
officers  had  all  forsaken  me  and  I  was  there,  either 
to  let  the  election  go  by  default  or  else  to  pursue 
that  course, — and  I  resolved  on  that  to  get  him  away 
from  there/* 


FOILED  THE  KU  KLUX  113 

"Would  not  the  course  have  been  just  as  effectual 
if  you  had  arrested  him  in  the  name  of  the  law?" 

"I  think  the  parties  around  him  would  have  re 
sisted  arrest." 

"Would  not  they  have  equally  resisted  your  firing 
upon  him?" 


CHAPTER  SIXTEEN 
IN  TUSCALOOSA 

Two  young  men  belonging  in  the  hills  of  Tusca- 
loosa  county,  were  journeying  in  a  wagon,  bound 
homeward  from  a  trading  trip  to  Northport  (across 
the  river  from  Tuscaloosa).  Passing  a  negro  lad, 
they  jestingly  pretended  that  they  would  kidnap 
him.  In  alarm,  the  boy  fled  to  his  home  and  in 
formed  his  father  that  he  had  been  mistreated ;  and 
the  man  armed  himself  with  a  gun  and  pursued  the 
unconscious  young  men.  Overtaking  them,  he 
leveled  his  gun  menacingly  and  cursed  the  unarmed 
and  defenseless  white  men.  That  night  they,  with 
some  friends,  repaired  to  the  negro's  house  to 
chastise  him.  He  had  assembled  a  number  of  armed 
friends  in  anticipation  of  an  attack.  He  had 
loosened  some  of  the  flooring,  and  through  the  open 
ing  thus  provided  crawled  to  the  edge  of  the  house, 
and,  emerging  from  this  position,  crept  unperceived 
to  the  near-by  bushes.  While  the  whites  were  par 
leying  with  the  inmates  of  the  house,  he  discharged 
both  barrels  of  his  gun,  and  young  Finley  fell  dead. 

114 


IN  TUSCALOOSA  115 

Shots  from  the  house  succeeded.  Attacked  front 
and  rear,  the  whites  withdrew  in  disorder.  News 
of  the  occurrence  quickly  spread  far  and  wide. 

Next  day  one  of  the  negroes  implicated  was 
caught  and  killed.  Later,  another,  who  had  been 
captured  and  incarcerated  in  jail  at  Tuscaloosa,  was 
taken  therefrom  by  a  band  of  men  and  executed. 
The  ringleader  escaped  temporarily.  Twice  in  pur 
suit  of  him  steamboats  were  stopped  and  searched. 
The  fugitive  had  been  on  one  of  them,  but  debarked 
at  one  of  the  landings.  About  twelve  months  after 
the  unsuccessful  chase,  the  fugitive  was  traced  to  a 
plantation  in  Hale  county,  where  the  habit  of  wear 
ing  a  heavy  revolver  even  while  at  field  work  ren 
dered  him  an  object  of  suspicion,  and  caused  an 
investigation  which  revealed  his  identity.  His  dead 
body,  weapon  in  hand,  was  found  one  day  on  the 
roadside,  and  his  taking  off  was  associated  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  with  the  brief  visit  to  that  neigh 
borhood  of  two  white  men,  who  departed  in  the 
direction  of  Tuscaloosa  county.  Consequences  of 
this  affair  were  a  change  in  the  office  of  sheriff, 
recall  of  troops,  and  other  tragedies,  but  the  ultimate 
effect  was  a  better  understanding  between  the  races. 


CHAPTER  SEVENTEEN 
A  SERIES  OF  TRAGEDIES 

In  Sumter  county  affairs  were  approaching  a 
climax  when  Enoch  Townsend,  a  negro,  about  dark 
one  evening  waylaid  and  repeatedly  stabbed  Mr. 
Bryant  Richardson,  a  planter,  and  fled  after  Mr. 
Richardson,  despite  his  wounds,  bravely  struggled  to 
overcome  his  assailant.  A  warrant  for  the  arrest 
of  the  assailant  issued,  and  officers  sought  him  on 
the  plantation  of  Dr.  Choutteau. 

Choutteau  was  of  French  descent  and  migrated 
to  Sumter  from  Louisiana,  where,  it  was  rumored, 
he  had  been  involved  in  serious  trouble.  He  is  de 
scribed  as  a  swaggerer.  During  his  early  residence 
in  Sumter  he  expressed  intense  dislike  of  freedmen 
and  lost  caste  with  the  whites  by  seriously  advocat 
ing  wholesale  poisoning  as  a  means  of  relieving  the 
county  of  the  surplus  of  its  negro  population.  Later 
he  yielded  to  the  temptation  of  office,  and  identified 
himself  with  the  league  and  gained  odious  notoriety 
by  his  radicalism.  He  had  constantly  about  him  at 

116 


A  SERIES  OF  TRAGEDIES  11^ 

his  plantation  armed  negro  guards;  the  league  met 
there  and  picketed  the  roads  thereabout.  At  length 
he  became  intolerable. 

To  this  plantation  officers  with  the  warrant  of 
arrest  repaired  and  searched  the  cabins  in  the  negro 
quarters.  After  the  search  was  nearly  completed,  a 
negro  scrambled  from  the  chimney  of  a  cabin  to  the 
roof,  sprang  thence  to  the  ground  and  fled.  Dis 
obeying  the  summons  to  halt,  he  was  fired  upon  by 
the  posse  and  killed.  Poor  fellow!  he  was  the 
wrong  man,  and  no  one  ever  learned  why  he  acted 
so  like  a  criminal.  The  dead  man  proved  to  be 
Yankee  Ben,  president  of  the  Loyal  League  at 
Sumterville.  (The  fugitive  Townsend  was  arrested 
by  two  law-abiding  freedmen  and  lodged  in  jail  at 
Livingston. ) 

The  killing  of  Yankee  Ben  excited  the  negroes, 
and  a  meeting  was  called  at  Choutteau's  place  for  the 
purpose  of  formulating  plans  to  avenge  it.  Sixty 
armed  negroes  assembled  accordingly  on  Saturday, 
but  were  dispersed.  On  Monday  one  hundred  and 
fifty  met  at  Choutteau's.  Simultaneously,  twelve 
white  men  went  there  to  hold  an  inquest  on  the  re 
mains  of  Yankee  Ben,  which  had  previously  been 
interrupted  by  the  proceedings  narrated.  On  the 
latter  occasion  Choutteau  refused  to  permit  an  in 
quest  unless  by  a  jury  composed  of  negroes.  In  this 


ii8          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

his  dusky  adherents  supported  him,  and  were  insult 
ing  in  demeanor.  One  hundred  whites  reinforced 
the  jury  and  scattered  the  negroes.  Thereupon 
Choutteau  withdrew  his  objection.  Moreover,  he 
promised  that  if  permitted  to  remain  on  his  place 
undisturbed  for  a  few  days,  he  would  leave  the 
neighborhood,  adding  that  he  had  for  some  time 
contemplated  the  move.  He  was  told  that  what  he 
purposed  to  do  was  unnecessary,  and  that  he  was 
required  only  to  cease  his  turbulent  practices. 

Choutteau  moved  to  Livingston,  and  shortly  after 
ward  his  plantation  house  was  destroyed  by  fire. 
He  then  posed  as  a  victim  of  Ku  Klux  incendiarism, 
magnified  his  losses,  memorialized  the  legislature 
for  reimbursement,  published  exaggerated  stories 
of  the  occurrence,  and  vociferously  threatened  re 
venge.  He  was  regarded  as  a  menace  to  the  safety 
of  the  community  in  which  he  had  taken  up  his 
residence. 

Shortly  after  midnight  August  13,  1869,  his  house 
was  attacked  by  a  small  band  of  men,  who  forced 
an  entrance  into  the  hall.  Doors  on  each  side  gave 
entrance  to  sleeping  quarters,  and  an  invader  broke 
out  a  panel  of  one  of  them,  struck  a  match  and  thrust 
his  face  into  the  opening.  A  gun  was  fired  from 
within  the  room  and  the  man  fell  to  the  floor.  The 
weapon  was  discharged  by  a  German  named 


A  SERIES  OF  TRAGEDIES  119 

Coblentz,  whom  Choutteau  had  hired  as  a  guard. 
The  intruder's  head  was  blown  to  pieces,  and  the 
entire  brain,  with  one  hemisphere  intact,  together 
with  the  mask  the  unfortunate  had  worn,  was  found 
on  the  floor  next  morning.  When  the  victim  fell 
back  from  the  door,  a  comrade  sprang  to  the  vacated 
place  and  fired  several  shots  at  Coblentz,  inflicting 
wounds  from  which  he  died  an  hour  or  so  later. 
Believing  they  had  killed  Choutteau,  the  band  de 
parted,  taking  the  fallen  comrade.  Blood  drippings 
marked  for  some  miles,  to  the  river,  the  trail  of  the 
retiring  invaders.  The  negro  ferryman  testified  that 
they  ferried  themselves  over  the  stream. 

The  dead  man's  identity  was  never  disclosed  to  the 
public,  but  there  was  a  rumor  that  he  was  a  young 
doctor,  and  that  his  remains  were  interred  by  com 
panions,  who  sent  to  his  home  his  watch  and  other 
valuables  which  he  had  about  his  person,  with  in 
formation  regarding  the  place  of  burial.  In  some 
unhappy  home,  a  mother,  wife  or  other  loved  ones 
long  mourned  the  fate  of  him  who  had  died  so 
tragically.  Choutteau  did  not  tarry.  He  was  given 
employment  in  Washington,  and  disappeared  from 
view. 

The  party  which  visited  Livingston  that  fateful 
night  divided  and  a  detachment  went  to  the  house 
of  George  Houston,  one  of  the  negro  legislators. 


120          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

When  the  firing  began  at  Houston's  home,  someone 
sprang  from  a  window  and  fled  to  the  brush.  Think 
ing  it  was  Houston  and  that  he  had  escaped,  this 
band  reunited  itself  with  the  others  and  all  departed. 
It  was  Houston's  son  who  escaped.  Houston  him 
self  was  wounded,  but  recovered,  and  left  for 
Montgomery,  returning  no  more.  Houston  was 
accused  of  having  repeatedly  uttered  the  threat  that 
if  the  whites  did  not  cease  their  regulating  activities 
he  would  have  Livingston  laid  in  ashes. 

On  August  8,  of  the  same  year  leading  citizens 
of  Livingston  received  telegrams  advising  them  that 
one  hundred  armed  negroes,  en  route  to  Livingston, 
had  stopped  at  Gainesville,  in  the  same  county, 
and  purchased  quantities  of  ammunition.  Very 
soon  thereafter  Captain  Johnson,  commander  of  a 
steamer  on  the  Tombigbee  river,  telegraphed  to  Liv 
ingston  that  in  steaming  up  the  stream  he  had  seen 
groups  of  negroes  on  the  banks, — all  with  guns, — 
who  said  they  were  going  to  Livingston  to  attend 
a  nominating  meeting,  to  be  held  next  day;  that 
they  had  been  ordered  to  attend  with  arms.  An 
other  dispatch  was  received  from  Eutaw  saying  that 
Congressman  Hays  had  engaged  transportation  next 
day  for  one  hundred  negroes. 

The  white  people  of  Livingston,  on  receipt  of 


A  SERIES  OF  TRAGEDIES  121 

these  dispatches,  bestirred  themselves  and  sum 
moned  reinforcements  from  other  points. 

The  night  preceding  the  day  set  for  the  meeting 
the  negroes  camped  outside  of  town.  Next  day, 
when  they  entered  Livingston,  they  were  confronted 
by  a  body  of  white  men,  who  told  them  they  would 
not  be  permitted  to  retain  their  guns  while  in  town 
and  must  take  them  back  to  the  camp.  The  negroes, 
after  some  disputation,  on  learning  that  the  con 
gressman  would  not  be  present,  retired.  Burke, 
the  negro  legislator  and  president  of  the  league, 
went  to  the  camp  and  harangued  them.  He  urggd 
them  to  return  to  town  with  their  guns  and  resist 
any  interference  that  might  be  offered.  He  wrought 
them  into  a  state  of  excitement. 

One  negro,  Hayne  Richardson,  refused  to  lay 
down  his  gun,  and  was  shot  on  the  road  some  dis 
tance  out  of  town.  The  report  of  the  gun  attracted 
attention  both  in  town  and  camp,  and  suddenly  a 
party  of  horsemen  dashed  toward  the  latter,  firing 
their  weapons.  The  sudden  attack  abruptly  term 
inated  Burke's  fervid  oratory  and  his  audience  fled. 
Some  were  shot.  Richardson  was  badly  hurt,  but 
escaped  and  left  the  county.  The  following  night 
twenty  horsemen  surrounded  Burke's  dwelling.  He 
escaped  from  it  and  fled,  under  fire.  Early  in  the 


122          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

morning  his  body  was  found  stretched  in  a  path 
leading  to  the  dwelling  of  his  former  master. 

Price,  the  man  of  multifarious  official  employ 
ment,  called  the  meeting,  and  the  negroes  who  testi 
fied  in  the  investigation  said  that  his  runners  told 
them  he  directed  that  they  attend  with  guns.  Price 
took  final  leave  of  Sumter  before  the  shooting  com 
menced. 

Congressman  Hays  said  he  was  prevented  from 
attending  by  sickness  of  a  member  of  his  family.  He 
disavowed  any  responsibility  for  the  negroes  going 
armed.  "I  only  want  to  state  this,"  he  said,  while 
testifying  in  Livingston,  "in  connection  with  that 
matter — I  do  not  know  that  it  is  worth  stating: 
that  I  understood  from  friends  of  mine  here  that 
there  was  a  regular  mob  down  there  to  assassinate 
me  the  very  moment  I  got  off  the  train.  I  heard 
that  afterward, — that  if  I  had  come  here,  I  would 
have  been  killed  instantly.  If  I  had  been,  I  would 
have  been  killed  innocently." 

Congressman  Hays  was  unfortunate  in  being 
placed  in  alleged  false  situations.  There  was  an 
other  memorable  occasion  when  appearances  were 
against  him,  however  innocent  of  evil  designs  he 
may  have  been : 

There  was  to  be  a  meeting  at  Boligee,  in  Greene 
county,  and  Colonel  J.  J.  Jolly,  of  Eutaw,  was  in- 


A  SERIES  OF  TRAGEDIES  123 

vited  to  address  the  gathering.  The  Boligee  Demo 
cratic  Club  sent  a  committee  to  Major  Charles 
Hays  with  an  invitation  to  discuss  jointly  with 
Colonel  Jolly  the  issues  of  the  campaign.  The 
invitation  was  accepted.  When  Major  Hays  arrived 
there  was  gathered  a  party  of  armed  negroes.  Ac 
cording  to  his  own  statement  under  oath,  Hays,  in 
relating  the  incidents  of  the  abortive  meeting,  said 
that  a  half-hour  after  his  arrival  "there  came  some 
fifteen  young  men  riding  up,  with  double-barreled 
guns  and  a  few  hounds  following  them.  I  saw  this 
demonstration  at  once  and  I  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  it  was  gotten  up  for  a  row."  He  had  been 
present  for  a  half -hour  and  was  all  the  time  aware 
that  a  crowd  of  armed  negroes  was  gathered,  but 
said  nothing  in  remonstrance,  but  as  soon  as  the 
party  of  young  white  men  rode  up  he  immediately 
stepped  to  the  door  of  the  building  in  which  he  was 
waiting,  and  said  to  the  negroes :  "You  have  come 
here  with  guns  in  your  hands,  and  you  know  that  I 
have  expressly  said  to  you  that  I  would  never 
speak  to  you  on  any  occasion  whatever  when  you 
brought  arms  to  a  political  meeting  at  any  place, 
and  I  shall  decline  to  have  anything  to  do  with  this 
matter  in  any  way  whatever."  Then,  turning  to 
the  white  men,  "I  hope,  gentlemen,  you  will  excuse 
me ;  I'm  going  home." 


CHAPTER  EIGHTEEN 

DISAPPEARANCE  OF  PRICE 

Price  was  the  most  turbulent  and  desperate  char 
acter  among  the  radicals.  One  of  his  own  ilk  de 
clared  that  Price  had  not  brought  with  him  even  so 
much  as  a  carpetbag,  but  was  soon  grasping  every 
thing  in  sight.  After  the  trouble  in  Livingston,  just 
described,  he  fled  to  Meridian,  and  continued  there 
to  be  a  disturbing  element. 

Lauderdale  county,  Mississippi,  of  which  Meri 
dian  is  the  capital,  and  Sumter  county,  Alabama, 
adjoin.  A  negro  of  Livingston  went  to  Meridian 
to  obtain  some  farm  laborers.  On  his  return  he 
reported  that  he  had  been  assaulted  by  disguised 
negroes,  in  whose  leader  he  recognized  Price.  An 
officer  went  from  Livingston  to  investigate,  and 
was  assaulted  by  Price  and  others.  Price  was 
arrested  by  the  Meridian  authorities,  and  when  the 
trial  was  due  a  number  of  Alabamians  were  gath 
ered  in  that  town.  The  trial  was  to  be  before  the 
mayor.  Some  of  the  county  and  city  officials  re 
quested  the  mayor  not  to  permit  the  trial  to  pro 
ceed,  because  if  he  did  there  would  certainly  be  an 
outbreak.  In  compliance  with  the  request,  the  trial 

124 


DISAPPEARANCE  OF  PRICE        125 

was  postponed  and  Price  permitted  to  escape.  He 
never  reappeared  and  nothing  is  known  of  his 
subsequent  career.  But  he  entailed  trouble  on  the 
people,  and  there  was  a  bloody  sequel  to  his  arrest 
and  release.  Negroes  held  a  meeting  and  resolved 
that  they  would  repel  with  force  any  future  "raids" 
by  Alabamians.  After  the  meeting  adjourned  an 
incendiary  fire  started,  and  leading  negroes  at  the 
scene  discharged  revolvers  recklessly.  This  caused 
much  excitement,  and  some  colored  men  were 
arrested  and  held  under  guard.  Monday  morning 
at  eleven  o'clock  white  citizens  met  and  adopted  a 
resolution  asking  the  mayor  to  resign  and  leave 
the  city.  At  three  o'clock  the  trial  of  the  negro 
prisoners  began.  Many  Alabamians  were  in  town, 
among  them,  according  to  statements,  the  noted 
Steve  Renfroe,  of  Sumter,  and  Joe  Reynolds,  of 
Eutaw  ("Captain  Jenks").  The  trial  or  investiga 
tion  was  before  a  justice  named  Bramlette.  A! 
white  witness  concluded  his  testimony  and  was 
about  to  retire,  when  one  of  the  accused  negroes, 
Tyler,  insultingly  asked  him  to  continue  on  the  stand 
a  few  minutes,  as  he  wished  to  impeach  his  testi 
mony  with  that  of  some  negro  witnesses  whom  he 
would  introduce.  The  witness  picked  up  a  cane 
which  was  lying  on  the  table  and  moved  toward 
Tyler.  A  pistol  was  fired  from  the  direction  of  that 


126          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

part  of  the  room  in  which  Tyler  and  a  number  of 
others  were  grouped.  Bramlette  sank  back  in  his 
chair,  dead.  Firing  of  pistols  became  general  and 
there  was  great  disorder  and  confusion.  Clopton, 
one  of  the  negroes  under  arrest  and  charged  with 
incendiary  utterances,  was  wounded  and  thrown 
from  a  window  of  the  room,  which  was  in  the  sec 
ond  story.  He  was  taken  into  the  sheriff's  office,  and 
in  the  uproar  there  killed.  Tyler  escaped  from  the 
building  and  hid  in  a  shop  some  distance  away. 
Pursuers  found  and  killed  him.  Few  doubted  that 
he  fired  the  shot  which  killed  the  justice. 

Excitement  continued  through  the  afternoon. 
Three  other  negro  leaders  were  arrested  and  placed 
under  a  guard  for  protection.  Two  nights  after 
ward  they  were  taken  from  the  guards  and  executed. 

The  mayor  abandoned  his  office  and  left  the  state. 
An  obnoxious  member  of  the  legislature  was  sought, 
but  fled  and  did  not  return. 

One  of  the  utterances  of  Tyler  at  the  negro  meet 
ing  recalled  a  remarkable  incident  in  the  history  of 
Meridian.  In  a  drunken  brawl  an  Indian  belong 
ing  to  the  Mississippi  Choctaw  tribe  was  killed  there. 
A  band  of  his  tribesmen,  in  a  spirit  of  retaliation, 
visited  Meridian  and  killed  the  slayer.  Tyler  re 
ferred  to  this  action  of  the  Choctaws  as  an  example 
worthy  of  emulation  by  his  people. 


CHAPTER  NINETEEN 
RIOTS  IN  MARENGO 

In  the  campaign  of  1870,  a  former  slave  owner 
was  one  of  the  Republican  candidates  for  office  in 
Marengo  county,  and  made  what  was  regarded  as 
an  inflammatory  speech  to  negroes  gathered  at 
Shiloh,  a  hamlet,  situated  in  a  section  of  Marengo 
county  largely  populated  by  negroes.  A  few  white 
men  were  present,  and  between  them  and  the  can 
didate  an  angry  controversy  arose.  The  immediate 
result  was  cessation  of  the  speechmaking  and  dis 
solution  of  the  meeting.  The  orator  was  escorted 
by  white  men  to  a  buggy  and  departed  in  safety.  He 
was  a  pugnacious  man  and  had  a  record  of  at  least 
one  victim  to  attest  his  prowess  in  rencontre.  Some 
days  later  he  repaired  to  Linden,  the  county  seat, 
accompanied  by  two  negro  men,  ostentatiously  bear 
ing  a  United  States  flag.  There  had  assembled  a 
great  crowd  of  negroes,  who  were,  as  usual,  armed. 
With  him  on  the  platform  was  Captain  C.  L.  Drake, 
the  man  of  many  offices,  and  above  them  floated 

127 


128          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

Old  Glory.  An  offensive  reference  to  the  disturb 
ance  at  Shiloh  provoked  a  quick  retort  from  one 
of  a  small  group  of  white  men  who  were  listening  to 
the  speech.  The  orator  paused,  dramatically  re 
moved  from  his  pockets  his  watch  and  purse,  and 
from  its  fastening  a  diamond  pin,  handed  them  to 
the  sheriff,  with  the  request  that  he  convey  them  to 
the  candidate's  wife,  in  the  event  of  a  fatality,  drew 
a  pistol,  and,  remarking  that  he  had  been  mistreated 
and  would  "fight  it  out,"  descended  from  the  plat 
form.  Negroes  with  guns  sprang  into  double  ranks, 
enclosing  him  on  two  sides.  The  group  of  whites 
promptly  seized  and  disarmed  him,  and  meanwhile 
white  men  with  arms  were  rushing  to  the  scene  from 
all  quarters.  Somewhere  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
throng  a  pistol  was  fired  which  caused  a  stampede  in 
that  quarter.  The  negroes  about  the  platform,  con 
fronted  by  a  line  of  determined  whites,  yielded  and 
retired  from  the  scene.  Drake  fled  to  his  office  and 
thence  to  tall  timber.  The  candidate,  forsaken  by 
his  followers,  asked  for  protection,  and  was  hurried 
into  a  room  of  the  court-house  and  locked  in  with 
two  or  three  citizens.  The  angry  crowd  outside  was 
clamorous  and  the  beleaguered  man,  rejecting  all 
suggestions  of  plans  for  flight,  himself  finally  pro 
posed  as  a  means  of  quieting  the  uproar  to  sign  a 
paper  relinquishing  his  candidacy  for  sheriff  and 


RIOTS  IN   MARENGO  129 

withdrawing  from  politics.  Duplicate  copies  of  the 
paper  were  drawn  up  and  signed;  he  retained  one  of 
them,  and  the  other  was  taken  outside  and  read  to 
the  people.  It  produced  the  desired  effect.  The 
candidate  was  placed  in  a  buggy  and,  accompanied 
by  an  escort,  proceeded  to  his  home.  And  thus 
ended  "the  Linden  riot."  But  the  candidate  was 
irrespressible  and  speedily  repudiated  his  act  of 
self-abnegation  as  having  been  done  under  intimida 
tion. 

He  spoke  at  Belmont,  a  small  settlement,  and  be 
came  involved  in  an  affray  with  a  resident.  This 
created  a  general  disturbance,  in  which  the  meeting 
was  broken  up  and  the  negroes  sullenly  retired  from 
the  scene.  They  threatened  to  burn  the  place,  and 
a  white  man  was  shot  at  from  ambush.  So  un 
usually  hostile  and  aggressive  were  the  negroes  that 
warrants  issued  for  the  arrest  of  certain  of  their 
leaders,  among  them  Zeke  High.  There  were  posted 
notices  of  a  meeting  of  negroes  at  Belmont  on  July 
5,  1870.  White  men  in  considerable  numbers  as 
sembled  there  on  that  date,  and  the  meeting  was 
prudently  postponed.  A  negro  was  whipped  that 
night,  and  next  night  he  assembled  at  his  house,  in 
a  dense  swamp  near  the  river,  a  number  of  armed 
friends.  A  scouting  party  of  whites,  seeking  infor 
mation  respecting  the  purposes  of  the  negroes,  ap- 


130          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

proached  their  stronghold  in  the  darkness  of  night; 
one  of  them  (Melton)  entered  the  yard  and  was 
fired  at.  Melton  dropped  to  the  ground  and  feigned 
death  to  escape  another  volley.  Both  sides,  think 
ing  he  was  dead,  ceased  firing,  and  the  whites  with 
drew  to  give  the  alarm.  A  warrant  of  arrest  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  an  officer,  but  he  was  unwill 
ing  to  attempt  to  serve  it  at  night.  A  young  man 
named  Collins,  bold  and  fond  of  excitement  and 
adventure,  volunteered  to  serve  the  warrant  and 
was  duly  commissioned.  Collins,  with  three  com 
panions,  approached  the  house,  but  before  he  had 
time  to  summon  the  inmates  to  capitulate,  a  volley 
was  fired  by  the  latter  and  Collins  sank  from  his 
horse  in  death.  Two  of  his  companions  were  slightly 
injured,  and  the  party,  after  returning  the  fire, 
retired.  This  occurrence  created  intense  excite 
ment  and  indignation.  Whites  gathered  from  the 
surrounding  country.  The  negroes  were  greatly 
reinforced  and  fortified  a  position  in  an  almost 
impenetrable  part  of  the  swamp.  Some  of  the 
whites  favored  an  immediate  assault,  but  other 
counsels  prevailed,  and  the  sheriff,  with  a  small 
posse,  proceeded  to  the  scene  and  demanded  Collins* 
body.  The  demand  was  refused.  Next  day  the 
sheriff  rode  into  the  midst  of  the  mob  and  again 
demanded  the  body,  and  got  it.  A  few  hours  later 


RIOTS  IN   MARENGO  131 

the  white  forces  made  a  quick  and  determined  for 
ward  movement  to  dislodge  the  negroes  from  their 
almost  impregnable  position,  and  found  it  aban 
doned, — the  negroes  had  disbanded  and  fled  in 
terror.  This  terminated  "the  Belmont  riot";  but  it 
had  a  sequel  in  the  retributive  death  of  the  negro 
leader,  Zeke  High,  who  boasted  that  his  shot  killed 
Collins.  On  his  own  boastful  confession  High  was 
arrested  and  lodged  in  the  Sumter  county  jail  at  Liv 
ingston.  September  29  a  party  of  mounted  and  dis 
guised  men  from  the  direction  of  Marengo  forced 
the  sheriff  to  surrender  the  jail  keys,  entered  the 
prison  and  took  High  from  his  cell,  conveyed  him  a 
short  distance  away  and  hung  and  shot  him  to  death. 
This  High  was  a  desperate  and  dangerous  character, 
and  even  when  seized  by  his  executioners  fought 
ferociously.  When  the  leader  entered  the  dark  cell 
in  which  High  and  three  other  prisoners  were  incar 
cerated,  he  was  assaulted  and  struck  in  the  face  with 
a  heavy  piece  of  furniture,  the  blow  dislodging 
several  front  teeth. 


CHAPTER  TWENTY 
KILLINGS  AND  RIOTING  IN  GREENE 

In  1870  Eutaw,  the  seat  of  government  of  the  rich 
county  of  Greene,  contained  a  population  of  1,800 
or  2,000,  and  prospered  greatly  in  trade  with 
farmers  in  the  surrounding  country.  It  was  a 
typical  Southern  court-house  town, — busy  in  fall 
and  winter,  almost  dormant  in  late  spring  and 
summer.  Its  men  were  among  the  earliest  to  vol 
unteer  for  service  in  the  Confederate  armies  and 
latest  to  retire  from  that  service;  they  were  also 
amongst  the  earliest  to  organize  resistance  to  carpet 
bag  rule  and  to  throw  off  the  yoke. 

On  the  morning  of  April  i,  1870,  the  people  of 
Eutaw  were  shocked  when  informed  of  a  tragedy 
which  had  been  enacted  during  the  night — Alex 
ander  Boyd,  county  solicitor  and  register  in  chan 
cery,  had  been  shot  to  death  by  Ku  Klux !  At  first 
most  persons  discredited  the  gruesome  story  as  an 
"April  fool"  hoax,  but  incredulity  gave  place  to 
amazement  when  the  scene  of  the  awful  tragedy  was 
visited. 

132 


KILLINGS  AND  RIOTING  IN  GREENE    133 

Of  all  the  acts  attributed  to  the  klan,  perhaps 
none  was  bolder  than  the  slaying  of  Boyd.  A 
bachelor,  he  had  for  a  long  time  occupied  sleeping 
quarters  in  a  detached  office  building  situated  in  a 
corner  of  the  court-house  yard ;  but  having  received 
a  warning  note,  be  became  alarmed  and  abandoned 
these  quarters  and  obtained  an  apartment  on  the 
second  floor  of  the  Cleveland  Hotel  only  a  few 
nights  previous  to  his  death.  This  hotel  was  situated 
on  a  corner  diagonally  opposite  the  court-house, 
and  was  the  principal  rendezvous  of  townsmen  with 
a  taste  for  gossip. 

Witnesses  at  the  investigation  into  the  circum 
stances  testified  that  at  half-past  eleven  o'clock  forty 
or  fifty  horsemen,  in  the  regulation  garb  and  armed 
with  revolvers,  their  horses  robed  and  hooded,  ap 
proached  to  within  a  short  distance  of  the  hotel, 
where  all  except  the  customary  horse-holders  dis 
mounted  and  quickly  and  unhesitatingly  entered  the 
hotel  office,  posted  guards  at  all  entrances,  and  then 
commanded  the  clerk  to  take  up  a  candle  and  show 
them  to  Mr.  Boyd's  apartment.  Obediently  the 
clerk  led  the  way  until  he  reached  the  corridor  upon 
which  opened  the  room  they  sought.  Pausing  here, 
in  his  speechlessness  he  indicated  the  door  by  point 
ing,  and  then  fled  the  scene.  Within  a  brief  space 
an  agonized  scream,  heard  blocks  away,  issued  from 


134          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

the  room  of  the  doomed  man,  and  was  almost  in 
stantly  succeeded  by  a  heavy  volley  of  pistol  shots. 
The  panic-stricken  clerk  had  hardly  resumed  his 
seat  upon  the  office  stool,  with  hands  to  ears  and 
head  bowed  upon  his  ledger,  when  the  dread  in 
vaders  reappeared  in  the  office.  Signaling  with 
whistles  the  recall  of  sentinels,  they  quietly  with 
drew,  remounted  and  rode  around  the  square,  in 
military  order,  and  then  departed  in  the  direction 
from  which  they  first  appeared.  [They  were  traced 
to  the  Mississippi  border  line.] 

After  their  departure,  officials  and  others  repaired 
to  the  corridor  and  discovered  the  dead  body,  robed 
in  night  dress,  perforated  with  many  bullets  and 
almost  completely  drained  of  blood.  Not  a  shot 
had  missed  the  mark.  Inside  the  room  a  taMe> 
bearing  a  lighted  lamp,  his  revolver  and  watch, 
stood  close  to  the  head  of  the  bed.  He  had  not 
attempted  to  use  the  weapon.  Evidently  the  pur 
pose  of  his  slayers  was  to  remove  him  from  the 
building,  for  one  of  them  carried  a  suggestive  coil 
of  rope,  but  his  outcry  and  struggles  settled  his 
fate. 

Boyd  was  a  nephew  of  William  Miller,  probate 
judge.  Some  years  before  the  war  he  was  con 
victed  of  killing  a  young  man  named  Charner 
Brown,  and  sentenced  to  a  term  in  the  penitentiary. 


KILLINGS  AND  RIOTING  IN  GREENE    135 

A  petition  in  his  behalf  was  presented  to  Governor 
Winston,  and  in  response  thereto  the  sentence  was 
commuted  to  one  year's  imprisonment  in  the  county 
jail.  Having  served  the  sentence,  Boyd  departed 
for  another  state.  At  the  close  of  the  war  he  reap 
peared,  and,  following  the  example  of  his  uncle, 
sought  office  in  1868  at  the  hands  of  the  negroes, 
and  was  made  county  solicitor  and  register  in  chan 
cery.  He  was  not  distinguished  as  a  prosecutor, 
but  regarded  as  indifferent. 

December  9,  1869,  Dr.  Samuel  Snoddy  left  the 
village  of  Union,  in  the  northern  part  of  Greene 
county,  to  return  to  his  farm.  Night  overtook  him 
en  route,  and  he  became  confused.  Reaching  the 
cabin  of  some  negroes  with  whom  he  was  ac 
quainted,  he  engaged  one  of  them  to  pilot  him. 
Early  next  morning  Dr.  Snoddy's  badly  mutilated 
remains  were  discovered  on  the  roadside.  The  un 
fortunate  man  had  been  murdered  and  robbed  of  a 
considerable  sum  which  he  had  on  his  person.  Sam 
Caldwell,  Henry  Miller  and  Sam  Colvin,  negroes, 
were  arrested,  accused  of  the  crime,  and  lodged  in 
jail  at  Eutaw.  The  scene  of  the  murder  had  become 
notorious  on  account  of  being  a  centre  of  league 
activities  and  disorders,  and  the  murder  of  Snoddy 
aggravated  the  sense  of  wrong  under  which  the 
whites  had  long  been  restive ;  and  when,  a  few  days 


136          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

later,  the  prisoners  were  released,  one  of  them  on 
bond,  they  were  seized  and  executed  summarily. 
Solicitor  Boyd,  it  was  alleged,  manifested  no  zeal  in 
the  investigation  of  the  Snoddy  murder,  but  be 
came  exceedingly  active  in  the  inquisition  in  con 
nection  with  the  subsequent  and  consequent  affair^ 
and  exultantly  declared  that  he  had  ascertained  the 
names  of  all  the  men  engaged  in  it,  would  send  for 
soldiers  to  effect  their  arrest,  and  vigorously  prose 
cute  them,  and  if  necessary  hold  the  jury  for  six 
months. 

All  of  these  facts  were  related  in  explanation  of 
popular  displeasure  with  Boyd,  which  revealed  itself 
first  in  the  note  of  warning  and  finally  in  the  taking 
of  his  life.  Mr.  Boyd's  tombstone  in  the  Messopo- 
tamia  cemetery,  Eutaw,  erected  by  Judge  Miller,  is 
inscribed :  "Murdered  by  Ku  Klux." 

Greene  county  continued  in  a  state  of  disorder, 
which  grew  worse  as  the  election  approached. 

The  Republican  state  executive  committee  adver 
tised  that  on  October  25,  1870,  Senator  Warner, 
Congressman  Hays,  Governor  Smith  and  Ex-Gov 
ernor  Parsons  would  deliver  addresses  at  the  court 
house  in  Eutaw.  On  that  day  the  party  of  visitors, 
accompanied  by  General  Crawford,  military  com 
mander  of  the  department,  and  others,  arrived  in 
town.  They  were  informed  that  the  Democratic 


KILLINGS  AND  RIOTING  IN  GREENE    137 

county  committee  had  invited  the  voters  to  hear  an 
address  by  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the  legisla 
ture,  and  had  chosen  the  same  time  and  place. 
Thereupon  the  Republican  leaders  held  a  conference 
and  decided  to  invite  the  Democratic  committee  to 
hold  with  them  a  joint  meeting.  Accordingly,  Judge 
Miller,  Congressman  Hays  and  Mr.  Cockrell  were 
commissioned  to  convey  to  the  Democratic  com 
mittee  the  following  note : 

"We  propose  to  appoint  a  committee  of  two  to 
meet  a  committee  of  two  from  your  party,  to  ar 
range  the  terms  of  a  discussion  for  the  day,  to  meet 
immediately  at  the  circuit  clerk's  office." 
To  this  note  the  following  reply  was  sent : 
"Gentlemen, — In  answer  to  your  note  of  this 
date,  we,  the  committee  appointed  by  the  president 
of  the  Democratic  and  Conservative  Council  of 
Greene  county,  are  instructed  to  say,  that  we  do  not 
consider  the  questions  in  the  present  political  can 
vass  debatable,  either  as  to  men  or  measures ;  and  we 
therefore,  in  behalf  of  the  Democratic  and  Conser 
vative  party  of  Greene  county,  decline  any  discus 
sion  whatever. 

"J-  J-  JOLLY, 
"J.  G.  PIERCE, 
"Committee" 


138          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

This  reply  was  ominous.  So  apprehensive  were  the 
leaders  that  Congressman  Hays,  who  was  exceed 
ingly  unpopular,  decided,  with  the  concurrence  of 
the  others,  that  it  would  be  safer  if  he  should  refrain 
from  speaking.  The  garrison  troops  were  quartered 
a  half-mile  away  from  the  court-house,  and  Gover 
nor  Smith  requested  General  Crawford  to  have  the 
entire  body  brought  to  the  court-house;  but  after 
conference  with  the  sheriff,  the  general  concluded 
that  a  detachment  posted  two  blocks  distant  would 
be  a  sufficient  safeguard. 

Immediately  after  the  note  of  reply  was  sent, 
the  Democrats  called  their  meeting  to  order  on  the 
north  side  of  the  court-house,  and  soon  thereafter 
the  Republicans  assembled  on  the  south  side.  The 
Democratic  meeting  lasted  only  a  short  time,  and 
at  its  conclusion  the  auditors  repaired  to  points 
where  they  could  listen  to  the  Republican  orators. 

Corridors  run  through  the  court-house,  crossing 
each  other  in  the  centre  of  the  building.  These 
spaces  were  thronged  by  white  men. 

For  the  accommodation  of  the  Republican 
speakers,  an  improvised  platform,  formed  of  a  table, 
was  placed  against  a  window  opening  from  the 
clerk's  office.  All  of  the  Republican  visitors  and 
local  officials  occupied  chairs  in  this  office.  By 
request  of  Senator  Warner,  the  office  door  was 


KILLINGS  AND  RIOTING  IN  GREENE    139 

locked  from  the  inside,  in  order,  as  said,  that  "what 
ever  danger  there  might  be  would  be  in  front." 

Senator  Warner  spoke  without  unusual  interfer 
ence.  Ex-Governor  Parsons  followed  and  was  lis 
tened  to  attentively.  When  he  retired  through  the 
window,  the  negroes  called  for  Congressman  Hays. 
A  Democrat,  Major  Pierce,  approached  Governor 
Parsons,  who  was  seated  inside  near  the  window, 
and  advised  him  to  restrain  Hays.  Parsons,  in  re 
sponse,  endeavored  to  attract  the  attention  of  Hays, 
who  had  mounted  the  platform  with  the  intention, 
as  he  subsequently  testified,  not  to  deliver  an  ad 
dress,  but  merely  to  dismiss  the  audience.  If  this 
was  true,  his  purpose  was  misunderstood,  for  the 
table  was  suddenly  tilted  and  Hays  precipitated.  As 
he  fell  a  pistol  was  fired,  and  the  ball  passed  through 
Major  Pierce's  clothing.  Some  witnesses  testified 
that  Hays  fired  it,  and  Parsons  afterward  admitted 
that  Hayes  was  armed  with  a  derringer ;  others,  that 
the  shot  came  from  the  direction  in  which  the 
negroes  were  massed.  However  this  may  be,  there 
was  an  impulsive  forward  rush  by  the  negroes,  and, 
as  Warner  admitted,  they  had  weapons  in  their 
hands. 

The  first  shot  was  instantly  succeeded  by  a  volley 
from  the  corridors,  and  the  onrush  was  halted. 
Suddenly,  in  a  resonant  voice,  someone  in  a  corridor 


140          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

shouted:  "Go  in,  boys,  now  is  your  time!'*  Con 
tinuous  firing  followed,  and  the  negroes  fled  in  great 
disorder,  leveling  the  stout  fence  which  enclosed 
the  yard,  a  few  discharging  pistols  as  they  fled. 

Even  in  this  grave  situation  there  was  an  amus 
ing  incident.  In  his  testimony  before  an  investigat 
ing  commission  Senator  Warner,  describing  the 
riot,  related  it  accurately.  Beaver  hats  were  not 
worn  in  Eutaw  at  that  period.  Mr.  Parsons'  attire 
was  similar  to  that  of  Quakers  and  included  a  light- 
colored  beaver  hat.  Senator  Warner's  tile  was  con 
ventional,  black  and  glossy.  "I  caught  up  the  papers 
in  my  hands,"  he  said,  "and  walked  very  deliberately 
to  the  right,  in  order  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  the 
firing.  There  came  from  the  right-hand  side  of  the 
court-house  a  pretty  good  line  of  men,  thirty  or 
forty,  I  should  think.  They  came  around  all  to 
gether,  and  formed  a  tolerable  line  across  from  the 
corner  of  the  court-house  to  the  fence,  and  com 
menced  firing  on  the  negroes,  who  had  broken  down 
the  court-house  fence  and  were  fleeing  as  fast  as 
they  could.  These  men  cocked  their  revolvers  and 
fired  upon  them  as  rapidly  as  they  could.  I  looked 
at  them  for  a  moment,  and  then  walked  up  to  them 
as  they  were  firing.  I  saw  some  colored  men  falling 
on  the  grass  and  then  scrambling  up  and  moving 
off.  I  walked  up  to  these  men  and  held  up  my  hand 


KILLINGS  AND  RIOTING  IN  GREENE    141 

in  a  deprecating  manner,  and  said,  Tor  God's  sake, 
stop  this!'  One  of  them  who  was  nearest  to  me 
turned  around  and  cast  a  kind  of  defiant  but  yet 
somewhat  surprised  look  at  me.  One  of  them 
leveled  his  pistol  upon  us,  Governor  Parsons,  Mr. 
Brown  and  myself;  he  was  standing  about  the 
length  of  this  table  distant  from  us.  He  leveled 
his  pistol  at  Governor  Parsons.  The  governor  said  : 
'For  God's  sake,  don't  shoot  at  me ;  I  have  done  you 
no  harm.'  The  crowd  stopped  firing  and  turned 
their  attention  to  us.  Just  at  that  instant  the  sheriff 
came  around  with  his  arms  spread  out,  and  said: 
'Stop  this !  stop  this !'  The  man  stopped  for  a  mo 
ment  and  seemed  to  be  deliberating  whether  he 
should  shoot  Parsons.  He  then  saw  Mr.  Hays  on 
my  right;  turning  a  little  to  one  side  to  avoid  me, 
he  threw  his  pistol  down  upon  Hays  and  Mr. 
Brown,  who  were  both  together,  and  tried  to  shoot 
them.  They  both  sprang  behind  me;  I  saw  them 
getting  behind  me  and  squatting  on  the  ground  to 
avoid  his  fire.  By  that  time  the  negroes  had  been 
driven  out  of  the  court-house  yard  and  across  the 
street,  where  they  had  stopped  and  turned,  and 
began  to  fire  back.  A  few  were  firing  back.  Just  at 
that  moment  I  heard  somebody  call  out,  'Boys,  hold 
your  fire!'  The  firing  then  ceased.  I  started  and 
walked  through  the  crowd,  right  among  them.  I 


142          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

suppose  there  were  forty  or  fifty  of  them,  all  stand 
ing  there  with  their  revolvers  in  their  hands,  smok 
ing,  as  they  had  been  firing.  Just  as  I  was  getting 
out  of  the  crowd  somebody  from  behind  struck  at 
me  and  knocked  my  hat  off;  I  just  felt  the  blow  on 
my  head,  but  I  could  not  tell  who  it  was,  for  when  I 
turned  around  his  hands  were  dropped,  whoever  it 
was.  I  guess  it  was  pretty  lucky  I  did  not  know, 
for  the  blow  aroused  me  a  great  deal,  and  I  am 
afraid  I  should  have  lost  my  self-possession.  I 
turned  around  to  pick  up  my  hat,  when  another  man 
kicked  it ;  then  another  kicked  it ;  and  then  the  whole 
crowd,  one  after  another,  played  football  with  it  and 
kicked  it  across  the  yard.  I  started  back  to  get  it, 
when  a  man  by  the  name  of  Dunlap,  a  Democrat, 
who  seemed  to  be  in  accord  with  the  party  there,' 
walked  up  to  me  and  took  me  by  the  arm  in  a 
friendly  sort  of  way,  and  said,  'General,  you  had 
better  get  away  from  here  or  you  will  get  hurt !'  * 

The  senator's  hat  furnished  diversion  at  a  critical 
moment,  and  in  all  probability  was  the  means  of 
saving  his  life  and  the  lives  of  his  friends.  There 
had  been  firing  from  the  clerk's  office,  and  Mr. 
Cowan  (one  of  the  actors  in  the  Greensboro  tragedy 
mentioned  in  an  earlier  chapter),  was  slightly  grazed 
on  the  left  thigh.  He  was  brandishing  a  pistol  and 
calling  to  the  white  men  to  rally  about  him,  and 


KILLINGS  AND  RIOTING  IN  GREENE    143 

standing  near  a  window  of  the  clerk's  office.  He 
believed  that  he  was  made  a  target  by  a  prominent 
Republican  who  was  in  the  office.  Two  other  white 
men,  near  Mr.  Cowan,  were  struck  by  missiles  from 
the  negro  ranks  just  before  they  fled  from  the  yard. 
Some  of  the  party  with  or  about  Senator  Warner 
had,  a  moment  before  the  scene  described  by  him, 
emerged  from  the  office  and  were  retreating  to  the 
Cleveland  hotel,  and  a  determined  group  of  men, 
including  Reynolds,  with  a  shotgun,  were  pursuing 
them  when  the  fun  with  the  hat  commenced.  While 
it  was  yet  in  progress,  the  soldiers  wheeled  around 
the  nearest  corner  and  rescued  the  imperilled  Repub 
lican  leaders. 

Meanwhile  the  negroes,  having  fled  in  two  direc 
tions  to  points  where  they  had  guns  concealed  in 
wagons,  secured  these  arms  and  resolutely  moved 
back  toward  the  scene  of  their  rout.  They  were 
aware  of  their  preponderating  numbers,  and  counted 
on  the  sympathy  of  the  soldiers.  Those  on  Prairie 
street  had  not  proceeded  far  when  they  encountered 
a  squad  of  mounted  men  commanded  by  the  marshal 
and  a  few  sharpshooters  posted  behind  trees  in 
private  yards,  who  speedily  checked  their  advance. 
At  the  intersection  of  the  two  streets  which  were 
scenes  of  reviving  combat  a  line  of  white  men, 
armed  with  guns,  all  men  of  tested  courage,  was 


144          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

formed  to  prevent  a  junction  of  the  two  bodies  of 
negroes.  Just  then  the  soldiers,  at  double-quick, 
made  their  appearance  and  were  halted  opposite  the 
line  of  armed  citizens.  After  a  brief  hesitation,  the 
officer  gave  the  command  to  move  and  the  soldiers 
proceeded  down  Prairie  street.  The  negroes  quickly 
lost  courage  and  retreated,  and  before  long  none 
could  be  seen  within  miles  of  the  town.  And  so 
ended  the  Eutaw  riot,  in  which,  according  to  the 
local  newspaper,  the  Whig  and  Observer,  and  the 
testimony  of  witnesses,  54  men  were  shot,  and  from 
250  to  300  white  men  and  from  1,800  to  2,000 
negroes  were  engaged.  The  number  of  wounded 
was  probably  exaggerated. 

The  pistol  shot  which  followed  so  quickly  the 
rude  interruption  of  Hays'  remarks  was  not  the 
real  cause  of  the  riot ;  it  was  but  the  signal  for  the 
opening  of  a  conflict  which  had  been  impending 
for  some  time,  and  it  gave  vent  to  indignation  which 
had  been  suppressed  with  difficulty.  The  explana 
tion  is  found  in  earlier  occurrences. 

In  October  the  white  people  of  Greene  county 
were  much  disturbed  by  rumors  that  a  number  of 
bands  of  negroes  had  been  drilling  with  arms  in 
parts  of  the  county  where  plantations  were  largest 
and  the  negro  population  densest.  A  country  store 
was  burned  by  incendiaries,  and  threats  were  made 


KILLINGS  AND  RIOTING  IN  GREENE    145 

that  the  several  bands  would  be  consolidated  and 
Eutaw  attacked  by  the  combined  force. 

Lieutenant  Charles  Harkins,  commanding  the  de 
tachment  of  troops  garrisoning  the  town,  reported 
to  his  superior  officer  at  Huntsville  as  follows : 

"I  have  the  honor  to  report  that  on  the  evening 
of  the  i gth  instant,  reports  were  brought  to  this 
town,  by  both  colored  and  white  men,  to  the  effect 
that  a  band  of  armed  colored  men  intended  burning 
the  town  that  night.  The  rumor  seemed  to  be  gen 
erally  credited  by  the  citizens,  which  caused  great 
alarm  and  excitement.  Armed  parties  of  citizens 
were  immediately  formed,  under  the  direction  of  the 
sheriff,  and  patrols  and  pickets  sent  to  the  suburbs 
of  the  town,  where  they  remained  all  night.  No 
demonstration  was  made  by  the  colored  men,  if  they 
had  any  such  intention,  which  I  am  inclined  to  doubt. 
The  excitement  has  abated,  but  there  is  still  a  feel 
ing  of  distrust  and  anxiety  among  all  classes. 

"The  real  facts  of  the  case,  and  cause  of  the  pres 
ent  alarm,  I  believe  to  be  as  follows :  The  colored 
men  and  Republicans  generally  of  this  county,  feel 
ing  aggrieved  at  the  many  murders  and  outrages 
perpetrated  on  men  of  their  party  by  the  Ku  Klux 
organization,  have  determined  to  protect  themselves 
in  future  and  have  banded  together  for  that  pur 
pose  only,  not  to  assume  the  offensive,  or  interfere 


146          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

with  the  peaceful,  law-abiding  portion  of  the  com 
munity." 

The  relation  of  cause  and  effect  in  this  thwarted 
conspiracy  to  destroy  Eutaw  and  the  riot  which  fol 
lowed  so  soon  is  indisputable.  The  trend  of  Lieu 
tenant  Harkins'  sympathies  is  equally  plain.  He 
was  inclined  to  doubt  that  the  banded  negroes  in 
tended  to  burn  the  town,  but  readily  intimated  that 
they  had  provocation  in  "the  many  murders  and 
outrages  perpetrated  on  men  of  their  party  by  the 
Ku  Klux  organization."  Not  a  word  is  there  in  the 
report  concerning  the  burning  of  the  store,  nor  of 
the  fact  that  refugee  white  families  from  the  widely- 
separated  plantations  were  moving  into  Eutaw  for 
protection  against  the  menacing  bands  of  negroes, 
nor  that  the  "patrols  and  pickets"  were  necessary 
precautions  not  of  one  night  only,  but  of  three 
nights,  and  served  to  deter  the  negroes  from  prose 
cuting  their  design. 

The  prompt  action  of  the  whites  in  driving  the 
negroes  out  of  town  on  October  25  would  seem  pre 
cipitate  and  unjustifiable  if  not  considered  in  con 
nection  with  the  facts  just  recited.  Nearly  two 
thousand  negroes  attended  that  meeting,  and  they 
took  with  them  guns,  which  were  secreted  in  wagons 
at  the  foot  of  Prairie  street.  They  were  aware  that 
the  commanding  officer  of  the  garrison  was  in  sym- 


KILLINGS  AND  RIOTING  IN  GREENE    147 

pathy  with  them,  and  that  they  would  encounter  only 
a  small  body  of  white  men  should  there  be  a  colli 
sion.  No  doubt  they  counted  much  on  the  presence 
of  the  radical  governor  of  the  state,  the  military 
commander  of  the  department,  a  senator  and  a 
congressional  representative,  all  in  sympathy  with 
them,  and  all  smarting  under  indignities  received 
only  a  few  days  before  at  a  meeting  in  an  adjoining 
county. 

The  white  men  remembered  the  nights  of  anxiety 
for  the  safety  of  the  women  and  children  and  prop 
erty  of  the  town,  and  realized  the  danger  of  the 
situation  in  which  they  were  placed  by  the  group  of 
official  Republicans  who  heedlessly  and  recklessly 
assembled  thousands  of  negroes  who  had  so  recently 
been  frustrated  in  a  design  to  obtain  revenge  for 
punishment  administered  to  evildoers  of  their  race. 
Those  white  men  had  courage  and  resolution  to  meet 
the  emergency,  and  they  met  it  promptly  and  ter 
ribly.  And  they  taught  a  lesson  for  which  there 
has  never  since  been  occasion  for  repetition. 


CHAPTER  TWENTY-ONE 

RESTORATION   OF   WHITE  SUPREMACY 

The  state  election  in  1870  resulted  in  a  victory  for 
the  Democratic  and  Conservative  party,  but  there 
was  a  persistent  effort  to  deprive  that  party  of  the 
fruits  of  victory.  There  was  instituted  on  behalf 
of  the  incumbent  governor  and  treasurer  a  proceed 
ing  in  the  chancery  court  to  enjoin  the  presiding 
officer  of  the  senate  from  counting  the  votes  for 
candidates  for  those  two  offices.  The  legislature 
met  November  20,  and  the  law  required  that  the 
vote  be  counted,  with  the  two  houses  assembled 
jointly,  within  the  first  week.  In  the  proceedings 
instituted,  Governor  Smith  alleged  irregularity  in 
the  election.  The  judge  of  the  circuit  court  refused 
to  grant  an  injunction,  on  the  ground  that  the  legis 
lature  could  not  be  enjoined  by  a  court.  It  was  then 
filed  with  a  supreme  court  judge.  It  prayed  that 
the  presiding  officer  of  the  senate  be  restrained  from 
counting  the  vote  until  the  legislature  could  provide 
rules  by  which  the  proposed  contest  should  be  tried. 
Judge  Saffold,  as  chancellor,  granted  the  injunction. 

148 


RESTORATION  OF  WHITE  SUPREMACY  149 

Lieutenant-Governor  Applegate  was  dead,  and  Barr, 
an  Ohio  man,  was  presiding.  The  injunction  was 
served  on  Barr,  and  he  very  cheerfully  obeyed  it. 

There  are  some  interesting  facts  in  relation  to 
this  senate.  The  radical  constitution  gerrymandered 
the  senatorial  districts,  in  some  instances  apportion 
ing  a  senator  to  a  single  county ;  in  others,  a  senator 
to  a  group  of  three  or  four  counties,  with  nearly 
threefold  greater  population. 

The  constitution  provided  that  representatives  in 
the  legislature  should  be  elected  for  two  years,  and 
senators  for  four  years;  that  one-half  of  the  seats 
of  senators  first  elected  (in  1868)  should  be  de 
clared  vacant  at  the  end  of  two  years,  thus  providing 
for  continuation  of  a  certain  number.  In  accord 
ance  with  this  provision,  at  the  session  in  November 
the  question  whether  the  senators  should  draw  for 
the  long  and  short  terms  was  discussed;  nobody 
wished  to  vacate  his  seat,  and  by  hocus-pocus  they 
reached  the  conclusion  that  all  should  hold  over. 
Consequently,  one-half  of  them  sat  four  years  and 
the  others  for  six.  This  procedure  contributed  much 
to  the  complication  of  affairs.  This  senate  connived 
at  the  attempt  to  prevent  the  count  of  returns. 

At  noon  on  the  last  day  of  the  week  the  two 
houses  assembled  and  Barr  proceeded  to  count  the 
returns  for  other  officers,  declaring  that  for  Lieu- 


150          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

tenant-governor  E.  H.  Moren  had  received  a 
majority  of  the  votes  cast  at  the  election;  that  for 
secretary  of  state  J.  J.  Parker  had  defeated  J.  T. 
Rapier;  that  W.  A.  San  ford  had  defeated  Joshua 
Morse  in  the  race  for  attorney-general ;  that  Joseph 
Hodgson  succeeded  N.  B.  Cloud  as  superintendent 
of  public  instruction.  These  winners  were  all  Demo 
crats.  As  soon  as  he  had  declared  these  results,  Barr 
and  the  radical  senators  withdrew.  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  Moren  then  appeared,  took  the  oath  of  office, 
assumed  the  chair  of  the  presiding  officer,  and 
directed  that  the  returns  for  governor  and  treasurer 
be  brought  in.  This  being  done,  he  proceeded  forth 
with  to  count  them  and  declared  that  Robert  B.  Lind 
say,  for  governor,  and  James  F.  Grant,  for  treas 
urer,  had  received  majorities,  and  to  proclaim  them 
duly  elected.  These  officers  were  sent  for  and 
sworn  in.  Consternation  seized  the  Republican 
leaders.  They  were  caught  in  their  own  trap,  for  the 
injunction  had  been  served  on  Barr  and  he  had 
qualified  his  own  successor  in  the  person  of  Dr. 
Moren,  who  as  lieutenant-governor  was  unaffected 
by  the  injunction.  Lindsay  lost  no  time  in  demand 
ing  possession  of  the  office,  but  Smith  refused  to 
yield  and  had  federal  soldiers  guarding  all  entrances 
to  the  offices  of  governor  and  treasurer. 

Judge  J.  Q.  Smith  went  from  Selma  to  Mont- 


RESTORATION  OF  WHITE  SUPREMACY  151 

gomery,  and  before  him  Lindsay  and  Grant  in 
stituted  proceedings,  demanding  that  the  seal  and  all 
books  and  papers  and  other  property  pertaining  to 
the  offices  of  governor  and  treasurer  be  delivered  to 
them,  respectively.  The  proceedings  lasted  several 
days.  Meanwhile,  Montgomery  was  fast  filling  up 
with  young  men,  strangers  in  the  community,  and 
there  were  rumors  that  bodies  of  men  in  near-by 
towns  were  awaiting  summons  to  the  capital,  and 
that  locomotives  with  steam  up  and  cars  attached, 
ready  for  service,  were  side-tracked  at  a  number 
of  stations.  Judge  Smith's  court-room  was  daily 
crowded  with  strange  men.  Excitement  was  in 
tense. 

Lindsay  in  his  complaint  alleged  that  he  was  the 
qualified  successor  of  Governor  Smith ;  that  he  had 
made  a  demand  upon  him  for  the  books,  papers  and 
paraphernalia  of  the  office  of  governor,  and  that 
Smith  refused  to  deliver  them.  The  trial  was  set 
for  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  Governor 
Smith  was  ordered  to  appear  in  person  in  court  and 
show  cause  why  he  should  not  be  compelled  to  de 
liver  the  property  demanded.  Governor  Smith  did 
not  like  the  appearance  which  Montgomery  had 
assumed,  nor  did  he  relish  the  necessity  of  appear 
ing  in  that  court-room  and  before  that  audience 
contesting  the  right  of  the  people's  representatives 


152          WHEN  THE  KU  KLUX  RODE 

to  assume  the  offices  to  which  they  had  elected  them, 
nor  the  certainty  that  as  soon  as  judgment  should 
be  given  against  him  an  order  for  commitment  to 
custody  would  issue.  Accordingly,  he  had  a  confer 
ence  with  General  Pettus,  and  soon  thereafter  an 
nounced  that  he  "would  yield,  upon  the  ground  that, 
although  he  was  satisfied  he  was  fairly  and  lawfully 
re-elected,  his  continuance  of  the  litigation  and  the 
contest  in  the  palpable  excitement  that  surrounded 
the  whole  matter  would  tend  to  disturb  the  public 
peace;  and  the  detriment  to  the  material  interests  of 
the  people  of  the  state  would  be  infinitely  greater 
than  the  possession  of  the  office  itself  by  any  parti 
cular  man  could  possibly  compensate." 

Thus  negro  domination  in  Alabama  was  over 
come. 

And  the  Ku  Klux  rode  no  more. 


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